Frank Penn (7 March 1851 – 26 December 1916) was an amateur English international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

from 1875 to 1881 and was considered one of the finest batsmen of his day. He played once 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 the first

Test match 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) ...

played in England in 1880.Godfrey CJM (1939) 'I was there',

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2018-11-11.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 439–441.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2020-12-21.) Penn was born at Lee in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

, then part of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1851, the son of John Penn. His father was an engineer and ran

John Penn and Sons John Penn and Sons was an English engineering company based in London, and mainly known for its marine steam engines. History Establishment In 1799, engineer and millwright John Penn (born in Taunton, Somerset, 1770; died 6 June 1843) started a ...

, a company manufacturing marine steam engines in

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...

and

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

.Hartree R (2008) ''John Penn and Sons of Greenwich''. Landmark Publishing Ltd. He made his

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 ...

debut for Kent in 1875, having played club cricket previously.Mr Frank Penn
Obituaries in 1916, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 1917. Retrieved 2018-11-11.Frank Penn
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-11-11. His ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' obituary describes Penn as "the famous Kent batsman" who had "a short but very brilliant career, ranking for several years among the finest batsmen of his day." It described his batting as combining "strong defence with splendid hitting" and said he had "a free, commanding style". In 1877, he made 857 runs in 24 innings, including two centuries, and took part in the tour of Australia by

Lord Harris Colonel George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, (3 February 1851 – 24 March 1932), generally known as Lord Harris, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay. He was also an English amateur cricketer, mainly active f ...

' side in 1878/79, although he did not play in the only Test match during the tour. Penn did, however, play in the first Test in England in 1880, hitting the winning runs. His cricket career ended in 1881 when his doctor advised him not to run due to heart disease. He had played in 98 first-class matches, 62 of them for Kent.Ambrose D (2003
A brief profile of Frank Penn
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-11-11. After his playing career, Penn remained a prominent figure at Kent, helping Lord Harris build the club. He was the club's president in 1905. Penn died at

Patrixbourne Patrixbourne is a rural English village south-east of Canterbury in Kent. It is mostly taken up by agricultural hills and along with almost contiguous Bekesbourne to the north it makes up the civil parish of Bekesbourne-with-Patrixbourne in the ...

near

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

in 1916 aged 65 with an estate valued at £981.Hartree ''op. cit.'', p.95.

Family

His brothers

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and

Dick Dick, Dicks, or Dick's may refer to: Media * ''Dicks'' (album), a 2004 album by Fila Brazillia * Dicks (band), a musical group * ''Dick'' (film), a 1999 American comedy film * "Dick" (song), a 2019 song by Starboi3 featuring Doja Cat Names ...

also played for Kent, as did his son Frank junior. Another brother,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

was the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

from 1891 to 1903. He was married to Grace.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Penn, Frank 1851 births 1916 deaths England Test cricketers English cricketers Kent cricketers Gentlemen of the South cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Gentlemen of Kent cricketers