Colonel Charles John Coventry, CB (26 February 1867 – 2 June 1929) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer and an amateur cricketer who played in two retrospectively-recognised

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1899. Those were his only first-class appearances and he was never a member of any first-class county team. He was born in

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Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, and died in

Earl's Croome Earl's Croome is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire, England. History The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book, 1086, as ''Crumba''. The first part of its name is derived from the Earl ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

Biography

Coventry was the second son of

George Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry George William Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry, (9 May 1838 – 13 March 1930), styled Viscount Deerhurst from November 1838 until 1843, was a British Conservative politician. He was Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms between 1877 and 1880 and again ...

. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

. In 1922, he took command of the re-formed Worcestershire and Oxfordshire Yeomanry Brigade, now serving as 100 Field Brigade,

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. He retired from the Yeomanry in 1925.

Cricket

Coventry played his cricket for

when it was still a

minor county The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

, that is, a county without first-class status. He was described as "a fair bat with a free style who can hit hard". When the English tour to South Africa in 1888–89 was being put together, because the South Africans were considered weak, weaker players were selected for the English team. Coventry was one of those players selected. England still won the two games against representative South African sides easily, though Coventry did not feature prominently in either game: he batted at number 10 and did not bowl. On the whole tour he scored 174 runs at an average of 10.23 with a highest score of 33

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 ...

, and took three wickets. He played no first-class cricket in his career other than in those two Tests.

Family

Coventry married, in

St Peter's Church, Eaton Square St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square, is a Church of England parish church at the east end of Eaton Square, Belgravia, London. It is a neoclassical building designed by the architect Henry Hakewill with a hexastyle portico with Ionic columns and ...

, on 16 January 1900, Lily Whitehouse, younger daughter of Mr. FitzHugh Whitehouse, of Newport, USA. His younger son

Francis Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places * Rural M ...

briefly succeeded as 12th Earl of Coventry.

References

External links

* 1867 births 1929 deaths Companions of the Order of the Bath England Test cricketers English cricketers Military personnel from London People educated at Eton College People from Marylebone Worcestershire Yeomanry officers Worcestershire cricketers Younger sons of earls {{England-Test-cricket-bio-stub mr:चार्ली कोव्हेन्ट्री