Less than a week before the 2017 Open Golf Championship – the 146 th – English Heritage will today (11 July) honour Henry Cotton, three-time Open Champion and perhaps the first ‘celebrity golfer’ by unveiling a blue plaque at his former home in East Dulwich.

The English Heritage London blue plaque will be sited at 47 Crystal Palace Road, a detached house dating from the later nineteenth century in East Dulwich where Cotton lived with his family during his early years and developed the skills that would help him achieve success in the professional game.

Once described by the journalist WH Deedes as the man who “brought golf from the tradesman’s entrance right around to the front door,” Cotton came to prominence in the 1930s, winning three British Open championships at a time when it was an exception for a Briton to win just one, while changing the status of a professional golfer in this country from menial employee to celebrated sports personality. He also became the first golfer to be awarded a knighthood for services to the game, and was the founder member of the Golf Foundation, a charity which encourages children and young people to play golf.

Blue Plaques Panel Senior Historian Howard Spencer says: “There are comparatively few official London plaques to sporting achievers and until now, none to a golfer. English Heritage is delighted to award this plaque to Henry Cotton – the dominant British player of his era, who did so much to develop the game into the professional sport we know today.”

Cotton – who was born in Cheshire but grew up in London – showed early promise as a golfer, having been encouraged into the sport by his father George, who set up netted training areas in their garden in East Dulwich and in a nearby garage. After leaving school he became a junior golf club assistant and then club professional, from where his competitive career took off.

A member of the victorious Ryder Cup team in 1929, Cotton competed abroad before winning his first British Open Championship at Sandwich in 1934 – his early-won golfing legend status demonstrated when his record round of 65 was commemorated in the name of the ‘Dunlop 65’ ball. He won his second Open at Carnoustie in 1937, and by then was also lending his name to the endorsement of golfing products, and working as golfing correspondent for the News of the World.

His motto was: ‘to be a champion, you must act like one’ and he would often arrive in a hired Rolls-Royce and picnic from a Fortnum & Mason hamper when attending tournaments in Britain – although this was partly born of necessity since, as a professional, he would have been barred from club restaurants.

Cotton’s career was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World, although he turned his golfing skills to good effect when he raised £70,000 for the Red Cross through exhibition matches after being medically discharged (due to a stomach ulcer) from the Royal Air Force in 1943. Cotton had lifelong stomach problems; severe cramps nearly cost him the 1934 Open Championship.

He was awarded an MBE for his charitable work in 1946, and in the same year won the French Open. He captained the British Ryder Cup team in 1947 and 1953, and in 1948 won his third and last Open title. In his later career he became a course designer, while also publishing nine books on golf. He accepted a knighthood in 1987, the same year Nick Faldo (the first Briton since Cotton to win more than one British Open) won the first of his three titles, but sadly died from a heart attack before he could receive it.

The English Heritage London Blue Plaques scheme is generously supported by David Pearl, and members of the public.