Henry Beauclerk Bethune (16 November 1844 – 16 April 1912) was an English first-class

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 and British Army officer. The third son of Charles Goodwin Bethune, a Sussex landowner, and his wife Ann Isabella Mary, he was born and grew up on the family estate of Denne Park in

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

. Bethune purchased a commission in the British Army in November 1865, joining the

37th Foot The 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in Ireland in February 1702. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot to become the Hampshire R ...

as an ensign. He purchased the rank of lieutenant in April 1868, and was appointed an instructor of musketry in April 1869. He was promoted, without purchase, to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in June 1879 and was seconded for service as an instructor at Sandhurst. He retired from active service, in what was by then the

Royal Hampshire Regiment The Hampshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot and the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. The reg ...

, in November 1884. Having played cricket at both club and services level, Bethune made his debut in first-class cricket for Hampshire against Somerset at Taunton in 1885. With Hampshire losing their first-class status following that season, he continued to play minor matches for the county until it regained its first-class status in 1894. Following the restoration of their first-class status, Bethune made a second first-class appearance for Hampshire against Lancashire at Southampton in the

1897 County Championship The 1897 County Championship was the eighth officially organised running of the County Championship, and ran from 3 May to 30 August 1897. Lancashire County Cricket Club won the championship for the first time, narrowly beating Surrey. Table * On ...

. It was in this match that he took his only first-class wicket, when he dismissed Arthur Paul. In club cricket, Bethune was known to have played several long innings, including a score of 219 for the Corinthians against the United Services in 1890. He had been a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club since 1888. He died, unmarried, at Horsham in April 1912. His cousin, George Maximilian Bethune, was also a first-class cricketer.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bethune, Henry 1844 births 1912 deaths People from Horsham 37th Regiment of Foot officers Royal Hampshire Regiment officers English cricketers Hampshire cricketers Cricketers from West Sussex Academics of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Military personnel from West Sussex 19th-century British Army personnel