Fred Perry's name is brought up each Wimbledon as Britain searches for a successor to him as the Gentlemen's Champion.

It is 70 years since he completed the first of his three Singles titles the All-England Club. The achievement has cast its shadow over every male player with GB in parenthesis by his name on the draw sheet at the world's greatest tennis tournament.

If today's chief torchbearers of the odyssey, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski, needed any reminder of Perry's legacy and missed the FJP stamp issued in Gambia in 1990, it is embodied in the gates named after him at the Somerset Road entrance and, more strikingly, the statue by the main Church Road gate in the shadow of Centre Court. The bronze monument to Britain's most successful male tennis player of the 20th century, by David Wynne, depicts him as he was winning Wimbledon in 1934, 1935 and 1936; long-trousered and elegant.

I met Perry in the media and Championship officials canteen as he took a break from his pithy, erudite and frank Wimbledon commentaries for BBC radio, a job he had done every year bar one (when he suffered a blood clot on his lung) since 1947.

He rather liked Wynne's sculpture, telling me: "With the statue and gates with my name, it's all a great thrill. People are now saying ' I'll meet you at the Perry statue'. It's a strange feeling, makes you feel a little queasy. It's a beautifully-done statue. People don't know how I used to be, they only know me as I am now."

He clearly felt good about having something there for future generations to remember him the way he was. Perry said: "The old people will get fewer and fewer as time goes by."

He had positive emotions about Wimbledon. "It's a very nostalgic place. I've had a love affair with Wimbledon ever since I can remember. It stays with you.

"When I was there with the surviving champions celebrating the hundred years of Wimbledon in 1977 I realised I hadn't walked on to Centre Court at Wimbledon with people in it since 1936."

Perry appreciated what the event means to all its champions. "There haven't been any rich players, in the main, who have won Wimbledon. They have been unmonied players who have become rich as a result of winning the title at Wimbledon."

He also knew about Wimbledon uniqueness and enduring popularity: "You can ask players 'are you going to the Australian Open or the French Open?'. You don't ask 'are you going to the British Open?'. You ask ' are you going to Wimbledon?' All tennis players want to play Wimbledon and spectators like to go to it."

But the answer as to why Britain had not produced a male champion since his era eluded him. "Don't ask me why there hasn't been one since, I don't know. Why should it have been me? I don't know, but it happened to me."

Perry was the first player to win all four Grand Slams, a feat only equalled by Don Budge, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Andre Agassi. He claimed the US Open (three times), the French and Australian Open titles.

But it was his victories at the All-England Club that he cherished above all others. In his autobiography, he said: "Wimbledon has been the scene of my greatest triumphs."

He overcame Australian Jack Crawford 6-3, 6-0, 7-5 to capture his first Wimbledon title before consecutive final victories over German Gottfried von Cramm, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 and 6-1, 6-1, 6-0. It made him the first Briton since Laurie Doherty in 1904 to complete three consecutive Wimbledon final wins.

His second triumph against Von Cramm took just 40 minutes and was the swiftest final since William Renshaw defeated John Hartley in 1881. His opponent might suitably have been renamed Von Cramm-p that day. In his book, Perry revealed the inside information that helped.

Perry said: "He (a pre-match masseur) told me Von Cramm had been out to practice that morning, had overstretched his muscles before he was sufficiently warmed up and had suffered a groin cramp... he is going to have trouble stretching wide to the right.

"I was always a believer in stamping on my opponent if I got him down, at Wimbledon or anywhere else. I never wanted to give him the chance to get up. If I could have beaten him six-minus-one instead of six-love I would."

The secret behind his successes was the ruthless streak, a running forehand and supreme fitness allied, of course, to ability. The fact he trained with the Arsenal Football Club reflected his approach which he used it to good effect when getting professional tennis rolling on moving to the United States.

His attitude put him at odds with the amateur outlook of his day, but any rebukes were forgotten by him when it came to remembering his Wimbledon era. He had mellowed from the "rebel" - as he was labeled by some elements of the tennis establishment in England - who admitted to being "sometimes a little brash and arrogant about what I regarded as the class-ridden set up there (Wimbledon)"..

In Fred Perry: An Autobiography, he recalled his farewell to the courts as a player before turning professional after helping Britain to their fourth successive Davis Cup victory; the last three being at Wimbledon.

It was against Australia in July, 1936. "As I walked off court, Dan Maskell came out to take my rackets, as he always did. As we went behind the barrier leading to the dressing rooms, I said 'just a minute Dan' and I walked back on to Centre Court and took a final look around at the crowded stands. In that instant Maskell knew I was going to go pro, that I had gone from Wimbledon and the Davis Cup.

"I knew I would never play on Centre Court again because I had been back in England since April and nothing had been done to encourage me to stay in the amateur game. "Those seven Wimbledons had been wonderful, and in spite of everything that had gone on in the past two years, my great love affair with the place had never faltered. To me it was and always will be the greatest tennis venue in the world, and all my memories of Wimbledon are fond ones.

"All the hatchets have been buried now. To its great credit, Wimbledon has been a leader in bringing about change and improvement in the sport."

Perry, who predicted that Pete Sampras would dominate Wimbledon before the American had made his mark at the top level, lived in the real world. But he was always emotional about the lawns that brought him his fame. He passed on three months from his 86th birthday in 1995 but will be forever young thanks to a bronze work of art.