Reverend Es Carter A Yorkshire Cricketing Cleric

The Rev Edmund Carter introduced the great Lord Hawke to Yorkshire cricket. Although he played only a handful of first-class matches for Yorkshire, he played the game for Oxford University in the 1860s, in Victoria as a young man, and in West London, before the bulk of his life’s work as a clergyman in the shadow of York Minster.

Frank Mitchell (1872-1935) in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras was a shining sporting star who dazzled all too briefly. Whilst showing great potential at cricket as a mature undergraduate, he reached the ultimate position in rugby when still at Cambridge in becoming captain of the England XV. Cricket, though, was a more lasting interest. Mitchell achieved some notoriety through his actions as captain of Cambridge in the Varsity match of 1896, when he sought to avoid the Oxford XI having to follow-on by instructing his bowler to bowl no balls and wides. His earlier attacking style had already brought him, as a Yorkshireman, to the attention of Lord Hawke, with much of his limited first-class cricket then being played for Yorkshire. Hawke gave him a place on his tour to South Africa in 1898/99, which made Mitchell, retrospectively, an English Test cricketer. He served with the army during part of the Boer War and, after a wonderful season back with Yorkshire in 1901, he emigrated to South Africa. Working for Abe Bailey, the South African entrepreneur, led Mitchell to captain the South African team to England in 1904 which, though playing no official tests, had a successful tour. Thereafter he worked as a stockbroker, but a surprise recall as captain of the South African team for the triangular tour of 1912 caused more controversy. Without much personal income, Mitchell struggled with the requirements of amateurism, but he again joined the army in 1914, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Later he made a living from the precarious tin industry in Nigeria and from writing frequent columns for the cricketer. Some of the aspirations expressed in his articles would remain welcome today. Frank Mitchell was a man of many parts, whose contributions to English and South African sport made him for short periods a notable hero.

Norfolk Annals is a two volume work collected from the Norfolk Chronicle by British historian Charles Mackie. It presents a chronological record of the most remarkable events in the nineteenth century. Split down the middle, volume one covers the period from 1801 to 1850 and volume two continues from 1851 and ends with the December of 1900, recording events and happenings of Norfolk county.

Leslie Ward's reflections in this work encompass the remarkable individuals he encountered throughout his career as a caricaturist and portrait artist, highlighting his contributions to Vanity Fair and the notable personalities he captured through his art.