George Frederick Vernon (20 June 1856 – 10 August 1902) was an English

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 ...

er who played

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 ...

for Middlesex County Cricket Club. He also played one

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) ...

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 ...

during the first-ever Ashes tour in 1882-83.

Biography

Vernon was the son of George Vernon of 32

Montagu Square Montagu Square is a garden square in Marylebone, London. It is centred 550 metres north of Marble Arch and 440 m east of Edgware Road. Internally it spans by and is oriented on an axis of about NNW, an axis lasting for four block ...

. He was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...

, and first appeared at Lord's as a member of the Rugby eleven in 1873, and was captain in 1874. He later went on to play 103 first-class games for Middlesex. Besides the 1882–83 tour, he also toured Australia in 1887–88. Vernon toured

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1889-90 as the leader of a team of amateurs, of which the other notable player was

Lord Hawke Martin Bladen Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke (16 August 1860 – 10 October 1938), generally known as Lord Hawke, was an English amateur cricketer active from 1881 to 1911 who played for Yorkshire and England. He was born in Willingham by Stow, near G ...

. The other players could not really be said to be first-class, but the team was of a quality much higher than any seen in India at that time. This was the first ever tour by a foreign team to India. They won seven games and drew another before they were due to play the Parsi Gymkhana of

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

(now Mumbai) on 30 January 1890, just after that great cricket stalwart,

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 ...

, had been named as the next Governor of the Bombay Presidency. The match was billed as being for the "Cricket Championship of India". At the time it was the greatest sporting event to have happened in Bombay, and to the astonishment of the British rulers, the Parsi side won. Vernon toured India again in 1892-93 as part of a team led by Lord Hawke that also lost to the Parsis. His last first-class game, which was for 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 ...

came in

1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...

. He represented the England national rugby union team as a forward on five occasions. By profession Vernon was a barrister, who was called to the Bar at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

. He was engaged in the colonial service, and worked for the West Africa Police in the Gold Coast Colony at the time of his death. Vernon died aged 46 of malaria fever in the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

(now Ghana).

References

* ''A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport'' by Ramachandra Guha

External links

*
Scrum: George Vernon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vernon, George 1856 births 1902 deaths A. J. Webbe's XI cricketers C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers East of England cricketers England international rugby union players England Test cricketers English cricketers English rugby union players Free Foresters cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers H. Philipson's XI cricketers I Zingari cricketers Lord Hawke's XI cricketers Lord March's XI cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Members of the Middle Temple Middlesex cricketers North v South cricketers Orleans Club cricketers Over 30s v Under 30s cricketers People educated at Rugby School Rugby union players from Marylebone