User:Dan arndt/Galle Services Club

The Galle Services Club is a social and sports club in Galle, Sri Lanka, which was established in 1947.

History
In 1876 a racecourse was established on the Galle Esplanade.

In 1885 the Galle Gymkhana Club was established, and its first secretary was Charles Pickering Hayley (1848–1934), co-founder of the firm Hayley and Kenney (now known as Hayleys PLC Ltd). The club was initially limited to European residents, but with the increasing popularity of horse racing, membership was expanded to include Ceylonese.

In 1922 the club shifted it's horse racing to the Manning Racecourse, a 100 acre freehold site, at Boossa. The Boosa racecourse has since been converted into a children’s playground, opened by the Lions Club of Galle and named after Mahendran Amarasooriya.

The Galle Gymkhana Club was permitted, on nominal terms, to construct a fine Tennis Pavilion on grounds belonging to the Municipality. An Island-wide open Tennis Tournament for which the best players from Colombo and elsewhere enter, is annually a regular feature of the Race and Sports program of the Galle Gymkhana Club., from about the year 1920.

The club was later renamed to Galle Gymkhana Lawn Tennis Club.