Arthur William FitzRoy Somerset (20 September 1855 – 8 January 1937) was an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er. Somerset was born in

Chatham, Kent Chatham ( ) is a town located within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. The town developed around Chatham ...

, and educated at

Wellington College, Berkshire Wellington College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in the village of Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. Wellington is a registered charity and currently educates roughly 1,200 pupils, between the ages of 13 and ...

."A. W. F. Somerset"
''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county and club cricket. The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cricket writer. Warner e ...

'', Spring Annual 1937, p. 90. After some years in Australia he returned to England in 1881, living in

Castle Goring Castle Goring is a Grade I listed country house in Worthing, in West Sussex, England about northwest of the town centre. One of Worthing's two Grade I listed buildings (deemed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to be of exc ...

, a country house now in the town of

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

in Sussex, and former home of Sir Bysshe Shelley, grandfather of the poet

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

. He was well known for his hospitality at Castle Goring. He died there in January 1937, aged 81. Somerset was a batsman who also bowled fast occasionally in his early years and kept wicket occasionally later. He played 48 games of

between 1891 and 1913, some of them in England for

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

and other teams. Most of his first-class cricket was played on three tours of the West Indies: with Lord Brackley's XI in 1904–05, and on two

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

tours which he also captained, in 1910–11 and 1912–13. His highest score was 68

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

against

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

on the 1904–05 tour.

Family

Somerset is the great grandson of

Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort (16 October 1744 – 11 October 1803) was an English courtier and politician. He was the only son of Charles Noel Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort and Elizabeth Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort. Styled Marque ...

and the son of Colonel FitzRoy Molyneux Henry Somerset and Jemima Drummond Nairne.Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, volume 1, page 225 He married his 2nd cousin Gwendolin Adelaide Katherine Georgiana Matilda Somerset, daughter of Sir Alfred Plantagenet Frederick Charles Somerset and Adelaide Harriet Brooke-Pechell, on 25 July 1887. He held the offices of Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex and

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

. The children of Arthur William FitzRoy Somerset and Gwendolin Adelaide Katherine Georgiana Matilda Somerset are: #Adelaide Millicent Blanche Gwendolen Somerset, b. 13 Oct 1888, d. 20 Jan 1958 # Arthur Plantagenet Francis Cecil Somerset, b. 28 Sep 1889, d. 13 Oct 1957 #Lieutenant FitzRoy Aubrey Somerset, b. 21 Dec 1892, d. 7 Jul 1916

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Somerset, Arthur senior 1855 births 1937 deaths Sportspeople from Chatham, Kent Sussex cricketers London County cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire English cricketers Cricketers from Kent