Frederick Henri "Fred" Abraham (4 July 1886 – 2 October 1918) was a British Guianese cricketer who played at first-class level for what is now the Guyanese national side (then known as British Guiana). He was killed fighting in France during the First World War. Abraham was born at

Soesdyke Soesdyke is a village in the Demerara-Mahaica Region (Region 4), Guyana, located between the Demerara River and the East Bank Public Road. Soesdyke is located just after the village called Den Heuvel (Coverden) if you are coming from Georgetown, w ...

, on the eastern bank of the

Demerara River The Demerara River is a river in eastern Guyana that rises in the central rainforests of the country and flows to the north for 346 kilometres until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. Georgetown, Guyana's largest seaport and capital, is situated o ...

in present-day

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

. His

Essequibo Essequibo is the largest traditional region of Guyana but not an administrative region of Guyana today. It may also refer to: * Essequibo River, the largest river in Guyana * Essequibo (colony), a former Dutch colony in what is now Guyana; * Esseq ...

-born father,

Fred Abraham Sr. Frederick "Fred" Abraham (or Frank Frederick Abraham; 9 January 1859 – 12 July 1901 or 14 May 1918) was a British Guiana, British Guianese cricketer who played a single first-class cricket, first-class match for Demerara, an antecedent of the ...

, played a single match for British Guiana in September 1883. Abraham himself made his first-class debut during the 1904–05 season, aged 18, when he played for British Guiana against a touring English side led by Lord Brackley (later the 4th Earl of Ellesmere). He participated in Inter-Colonial Tournament matches over the following six seasons, although British Guiana failed to make the tournament's final in any of those years.First-class matches played by Frederick Abraham (10)
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 30 November 2014. Abraham often opened the bowling for British Guiana, and later came to open the batting, despite having come in seventh in the batting order on debut. He twice scored half-centuries while opening the batting – 56 runs against Trinidad in September 1907, and 64 against Barbados in January 1909. Outside of intercolonial matches, Abraham played three matches for British Guiana against touring sides – two during the 1909–10 season, against a team of West Indians led by

William Shepherd William McMichael "Bill" Shepherd (born July 26, 1949), (Capt, USN, Ret.), is an American former Navy SEAL, aerospace, ocean, and mechanical engineer, and NASA astronaut, who served as Commander of Expedition 1, the first crew on the Internatio ...

, and one during the 1910–11 season, against a team of English players organised by the MCC and led by A. W. F. Somerset. Abraham's best bowling figures came during his final first-class match, against Trinidad in the 1911–12 Inter-Colonial Tournament hosted by Barbados. He took 4/30 from fourteen six-ball overs in Trinidad's innings, but was unable to prevent his side from losing by an innings and 36 runs. During World War I, Abraham enlisted as an officer cadet with the 16th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, having previously been a serjeant in the West India Regiment (drawn from the British colonies in the Caribbean).ABRAHAM, FREDERICK HENRI
– Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 30 November 2014. By September 1917, he had been promoted temporary

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

, along with 23 other cadets from his regiment. Abraham was killed in action at

Goncourt The Goncourt brothers (, , ) were Edmond de Goncourt (1822–1896) and Jules de Goncourt (1830–1870), both French naturalism writers who, as collaborative sibling authors, were inseparable in life. Background Edmond and Jules were born to m ...

, France, in early October 1918, and buried at Joncourt East British Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham, Fred junior 1886 births 1918 deaths British military personnel killed in World War I Guyana cricketers Guyanese cricketers Guyanese people of British descent Guyanese people of French descent Lancashire Fusiliers officers West India Regiment soldiers People from Essequibo Islands-West Demerara British Army personnel of World War I Burials in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in France

See also

References