Henry Vernon (16 December 1828 – 19 February 1855) was an English

cricketer 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 ...

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 officiall ...

for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, 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 ...

(MCC) and other

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

teams between 1850 and 1854. His birthplace is not known, but he died at

Tixover Tixover is a small village and civil parish in Rutland. The population of the civil parish at the 2001 census was 174, falling to 163 at the 2011 census. The village's name means 'ridge with young goats'. The second element derives from either th ...

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

. He was the eldest son of Henry Charles Vernon and grandson of Lt Gen Henry Charles Edward Vernon. Vernon's family owned

Hilton Hall Hilton Hall is an 18th-century mansion house now in use as an Office and Business Centre at Hilton, near Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire. It is a Grade I listed building. History The original manor house was commissioned by Sir Henry Swinnerton e ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

and at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. He was in the Harrow cricket eleven for five years from 1845 to 1849 as a middle-order batsman (sometimes an opener) and a bowler – he was 20 at the time of his fifth

Eton v Harrow The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual match between public school rivals Eton College and Harrow School. It is one of the longest-running annual sporting fixtures in the world and is the last annual school cricket match still to be pla ...

match. Neither his batting nor his bowling style is known. He made his first-class cricket debut while still at school by appearing in a match for the Gentlemen of England against a Gentlemen of Kent team in August 1848. He played regularly for Cambridge University from 1850 to 1852, appearing three times in

the University Match The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. From 2001, as part of the reorganisation of first-class cricket, ...

against

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and captaining the side in his final year. That 1852 University Match provided him with his best first-class bowling figures: he took three wickets, though the full bowling analysis has not survived, and his personal success was insufficient to prevent a crushing innings defeat for his Cambridge side. His best batting had come earlier in a match for Cambridge University against the MCC, when he made 59, his only half-century. From the end of the university term in 1850, he played for a variety of other amateur teams, rarely making much impact, and continued to do so after he left university: he played in the

North v South The North of England and South of England cricket teams appeared in first-class cricket between the 1836 and 1961 seasons, most often in matches against each other but also individually in games against touring teams, Marylebone Cricket Club (M ...

annual match twice, and four times in

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of English first-class cricket matches. Two matches were played in 1806, but the fixture was not played again until 1819. It became an annual event, usually played at least twice each season, exc ...

fixtures. He also appeared four times for teams calling themselves "England" which, though of no recognised international status, often contained the best cricketers of the day. Vernon graduated from

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1853. He does not appear to have followed any profession, and he died barely two years later at Tixover Hall in Rutland, the home of a Harrow contemporary (and very occasional cricketer),

Charles Ormston Eaton Charles Ormston Eaton (25 January 1827 – 14 September 1907) was an English banker and first-class cricketer. He was born at Ketton Hall and died at Tolethorpe Hall, both in Rutland. Eaton was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridg ...

, from what was termed "congestion of the brain". In some newspapers, the notice of Vernon's death at Eaton's house ran adjacent to a different notice about the marriage of Eaton's sister in Rome, two weeks earlier, both notices contriving to mention both Eaton and Tixover Hall.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vernon, Henry 1828 births 1855 deaths English cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Non-international England cricketers North v South cricketers People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Gentlemen of Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers All-England Eleven cricketers Over 30s v Under 30s cricketers Gentlemen of the South cricketers Neurological disease deaths in England Place of birth missing