Tributes to 'incredibly generous' Foster after death at 97

EVERY game of tennis starts with love... and that was the case in more ways than one for Foster Henry Garton.

- By PETER BARRON and ABIGAIL NICHOLSON

As a young man, while walking through his local park in Middlesbrough, he took a shine to a girl playing tennis.

Foster challenged her to a game and, though he lost, the encounter in Pallister Park was the beginning of a love affair with the girl, called Betty, and a sport he hadn't previously considered.

The couple went on to be married for nearly 60 years, and Foster became so hooked on tennis that his vision, as the founder of Tennis World, transformed participation in the sport across Teesside. His death, at 97, has inspired volley after volley of tributes, thanking him for his service to tennis and the community.

“He was an incredibly generous man with a gift for making everyone feel they were better players than they really were," says his son, Nigel.

“He used to buy racquets for those who couldn’t afford them, and the messages that have poured in show how many lives he touched.”

Another example of Foster's kindness was paying for Middlesbrough football legend Wilf Mannion to have Sky TV, so he could watch matches at home.

That commitment to Middlesbrough and its people was rooted in his childhood, growing up in Peel Street as the son of Archibald and Ruby Garton, who had a corner shop in Borough Road.

An only child, Foster went to Ayresome Street School, where his first sporting love was football. His talent attracted telegrams from Arsenal and Celtic, inviting him for trials, but his dad wanted him to be a musician, so the invitations were secretly thrown on the fire.

Instead, Foster played drums in local dance bands from the age of 13. After his school days, he landed an office job with engineering firm, Head Wrightson, and qualified as a draughtsman.