Charles Anguish (13 February 1769 – 25 May 1797) was an English soldier and

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 in the late 18th century. He was a member of the

White Conduit Club The White Conduit Club (WCC) was a cricket club based on the northern fringes of London that existed from c.1782 until 1788. Although short-lived, it had considerable significance in the history of the game, as its members created the first Lord ...

and an early member of the

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 ...

(MCC). He made his first-class debut during the 1789 season, playing for MCC, and is known to have played in 32 first-class matches from then until 1795, most frequently appearing for MCC sides, as well as a number of other matches for the club. Anguish was born at

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

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 ...

in 1767, as a member of the Anguish family which owned land across

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

. He was the son of Thomas Anguish, who served as the Accountant-General in the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

, and 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 ...

and later played cricket for Old Etonians. He was nominated for a place at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

in 1786 but did not attend the university, instead serving in the

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 ...

. In 1797 Anguish went to South Africa as part of the first British party to control the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

in 1797 with

George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney :''George Macartney should not be confused with Sir George Macartney, a later British statesman.'' George McCartney, 1st Earl McCartney (14 May 1737 – 31 May 1806), also spelt Macartney, was an Anglo-Irish statesman, colonial administrator a ...

, the newly appointed Governor of the recently conquered Cape. Anguish arrived at

Table Bay Table Bay (Afrikaans: ''Tafelbaai'') is a natural bay on the Atlantic Ocean overlooked by Cape Town (founded 1652 by Van Riebeeck) and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to the Cape of Good Hope. It was named ...

on 4 May and was appointed as Comptroller of Customs. He is sometimes held to be the first person to have played cricket in what is now

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, although there is no evidence that he ever did so.Jonty Winch (2013) ''Sir William Milton: a leading figure in Public School Games, Colonial Politics and Imperial Expansion, 1877–1914'', p. 7. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University. Retrieved 17 April 2022. Less than a month after arriving at the Cape, Anguish died on 25 May, committing suicide after having been unwell and taking medication.Wilkins WH ed (1901) ''South Africa a century ago; letters written from the Cape of Good Hope (1791–1801) by Lady Anne Barnard, 1750–1825''. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Available online
at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

library. Retrieved 17 April 2022.) His obituary in ''

The Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...

'' described him as "a young man of abilities and of a good temper, but with so odd a cast of manners that he was perpetually on the brink of a quarrel, even with those who knew his intentions were quite harmless, and could make every allowance for his peculiarities".Deaths
''

'' 1797, part 2, p. 389. Retrieved via

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

, 17 April 2022.

Lady Anne Barnard Lady Anne Barnard (née Lindsay; 8 December 17506 May 1825) was a Scottish travel writer, artist and socialite, and the author of the ballad ''Auld Robin Gray''. Her five-year residence in Cape Town, South Africa, although brief, had a signific ...

, who knew Anguish at the Cape, wrote that he was a "good-humoured, easy-tempered young man" and that "I thought him rather a happy man"; in her view "mental malady had been produced by bodily malady only". He was buried at the Cape close to the Review Ground at the

Castle of Good Hope The Castle of Good Hope ( nl, Kasteel de Goede Hoop; af, Kasteel die Goeie Hoop) known locally as the Castle or Cape Town Castle is a bastion fort built in the 17th century in Cape Town, South Africa. Originally located on the coastline of ...

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Anguish, Charles 1769 births 1797 deaths English cricketers of 1787 to 1825 English cricketers Hampshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Middlesex and Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Non-international England cricketers Old Etonians cricketers Surrey cricketers White Conduit Club cricketers Suicides in South Africa People from Bloomsbury