Frederick Somerset Gough Calthorpe (27 May 1892 – 19 November 1935), styled The Honourable from 1912, 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 officia ...

er. Born in London, Calthorpe ("pronounced with the first syllable rhyming with 'tall' and not with 'shall'") was a member of the

Gough-Calthorpe family The Gough-Calthorpe family is descended from ancient and notable families who both held lands in the area around Birmingham, England. Sir Henry Gough, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament, (1709–1774) was made a baronet in the Baronetage of the U ...

, the son of Somerset Frederick Gough-Calthorpe, who inherited the title of 8th

Baron Calthorpe Baron Calthorpe, of Calthorpe in the County of Norfolk, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1796 for Sir Henry Gough, 2nd Baronet, who had previously represented Bramber in Parliament. Born Henry Gough, he had ass ...

in 1912. Freddie Calthorpe was educated at Windlesham House School,

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 Census was 2,707, increasing to 2,8 ...

and

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

.CALTHORPE, Hon. Frederick Somerset Gough-
Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014, accessed 12 November 2016) He served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In a first-class career that extended from 1911 to 1935, Calthorpe played cricket for Sussex,

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

and

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 ...

. He toured with

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) to Australia and New Zealand in 1922–23, a trip that also served as a honeymoon for him and his bride Dorothy. He captained Warwickshire from 1920 to 1929, and also led a strong MCC team on a tour of the West Indies in 1925–26. He captained England in his only four Test matches: on the first ever Test tour of the West Indies in 1929–30, which was drawn 1–1. This tour was played simultaneously to another England Test tour to New Zealand, where England were captained by Harold Gilligan. During the tour, in a speech he gave in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

, he condemned the bowling tactic, later known as

bodyline Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia. It was designed to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's leading batsman ...

, which had been used by the West Indian fast bowler Learie Constantine. He died of cancer

Rowland Ryder Rowland Ryder (1914 – 13 February 1996) was an English schoolmaster, journalist, biographer and cricket writer. Life and work Ryder's father, also called Rowland Ryder, was the secretary of Warwickshire County Cricket Club from 1895 to 1944, and ...

(1995) ''Cricket Calling'', Faber & Faber, London, p. 114. in Worplesdon, Surrey. Calthorpe is distantly related to the

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 str ...

commentator

Henry Blofeld Henry Calthorpe Blofeld, OBE (born 23 September 1939) nicknamed Blowers by Brian Johnston, is an English retired sports journalist, broadcaster and amateur ornithologist best known as a cricket commentator for ''Test Match Special'' on BBC Ra ...

, and more closely to the England captain

H. D. G. Leveson Gower Sir Henry Dudley Gresham Leveson Gower ( ; 8 May 1873 – 1 February 1954) was an English cricketer from the Leveson-Gower family. He played first-class cricket for Oxford University and Surrey and captained England in Test cricket. His school n ...

and the early cricket patron

John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, KG (25 March 174519 July 1799) was the only son of Lord John Philip Sackville, second son of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset. His mother was the former Lady Frances Leveson-Gower. He succeeded ...

References

External links

* *
Brief footage of Calthorpe
from

British Pathe British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

(at 4.12, 5.51 and 6.53) {{DEFAULTSORT:Calthorpe, Freddie 1892 births 1935 deaths Military personnel from London Royal Air Force airmen People educated at Repton School Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Cambridge University cricketers Royal Air Force personnel of World War I England Test cricketers England Test cricket captains English cricketers Sussex cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Warwickshire cricket captains Free Foresters cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen cricketers North v South cricketers Gough-Calthorpe family English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers People educated at Windlesham House School L. H. Tennyson's XI cricket team