Peter Fleming amazed to hear stolen Wimbledon medals were recovered by mudlark

Independent

3 days ago

Peter Fleming thought the Wimbledon medals he won during a famous doubles partnership with John McEnroe were lost forever when they were stolen in a robbery at his home.
But months later the American was astonished to discover they had been found by a mudlarker on the banks of the Thames in tennis' own true crime story.
The medals form part of a new exhibition, Secrets of the Thames, at London Museum Docklands, which features objects found through mudlarking – the historic practice of scouring the foreshore at low tide for artefacts.
Fleming, who won four Wimbledon men's doubles titles with McEnroe in the 1970s and 80s and three US Open crowns, told the unusual tale to the PA news agency.
'I had just moved into a new flat in Wimbledon and for some reason I thought I didn't need to double lock my door because it was a secure building so I just pulled it shut and went out to play golf,' said the 70-year-old, a well-known face as a TV pundit.
'I came back about six hours later and my place had been ransacked. They stole a bunch of stuff. It's a horrible feeling when you get burgled, you feel like you've been violated or something.
'I had nine Wimbledon medals. You get to the semi-finals and they give you a medal: bronze, silver or gold.
'Apparently the guys who stole my stuff just drove down Putney High Street and anything that had a name on it they threw in the river.
'Six months later, somebody contacts me somehow, they first contacted the club I think. A couple of the medals were in perfect condition, a couple of them were all green.
'It was just such a freak occurrence. I thought they were gone. It was a real surprise to hear somebody say, 'we've got your medals'.'
Mudlarks need a permit to search the banks of the Thames, and a condition of the permit is that all objects of historical interest must be reported to London Museum.
'The mudlark in question who found the medals, he was used to coming in and reporting his finds to us,' said museum curator Kate Sumnall.
'It's written on the medals what they are so he brought them in and said, 'I've just found this group of medals all together on the same stretch of the foreshore, what do we do next?'
'We had a look at them, reached out to Peter Fleming and we were able to reunite the medals with Peter but also to hear the story of how Peter had unfortunately suffered from a burglary.
'We know that there's so much stolen property that ends up in the river, there's people's purses, wallets, jewellery, bags, that are just dumped in the river and it's rare that we can find the owner's name, and then to trace them and reunite them is a really special thing.'
Among the other objects on display in the exhibition – which runs until March 1, 2026 – are the barrels from a sawn-off shotgun, a dagger that dates back to the 1500s, a ball and chain, and weighted gamblers' dice.
Sumnall added of Fleming's medals: 'He was very generous with lending them to us and we're very pleased because they're one of the few contemporary objects we have on display, and it's lovely to have that connection with such an iconic sport and the Wimbledon Championships, and of course such a well-known name as Peter.'