Ten athletes from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland competed in seven sports at the 1896 Summer Olympics.

Two tennis players (one English, one Irish) also played in mixed team squads, contributing to a gold and a bronze medal.

Boland (later best known as an Irish nationalist politician) was by far the best player in the tennis competition, amassing a 6-0 record over both events and two gold medals, though one of them was as part of a mixed team.

Robertson was much less successful, losing both of the matches he played, though he was awarded a retroactive bronze medal by the International Olympic Committee as his bye in the doubles quarterfinals put him in third place in that event.

Like Boland's doubles gold medal, Robertson's bronze is not counted as part of the British total because the two played on mixed teams.