Howard Henry Francis (26 May 1868 – 7 January 1936) was a South African

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. Francis was born in

Clifton, Bristol Clifton is both a suburb of Bristol, England, and the name of one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells. The eastern part of the suburb lies within the ward of Clifton Do ...

, England. A batsman, he played for

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

from 1890 to 1894 before moving to South Africa in 1895. There he played for Western Province from 1895–96 to 1902–03. His highest first-class score was 55 against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

at Clifton in 1894, when he and

Jack Board John Henry Board (23 February 1867 – 15 April 1924) was an English cricketer who played in six Tests from 1899 to 1906. Jack Board was a wicketkeeper and a right-handed batsman who started out as a tail-ender but developed into a useful play ...

added 137 for the ninth wicket out of a team total of 225. Francis was the top-scorer on either side when Lord Hawke's XI played the first match of their tour in 1898–99 against a Western Province XIII, scoring 45 in the first innings batting at number three. Three weeks later he also top-scored, with 33, in the first innings for

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

against Lord Hawke's XI in the first first-class match of the tour. He played for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in the two

Test matches 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) ...

that followed, but was unsuccessful. However, he top-scored batting at number three in South Africa's second innings in the First Test, scoring 29 out of a team total of 99. Francis was also a

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

, playing for

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People *Clifton (surname) *Clifton (given name) Places Australia * Clifton, Queensland, a town **Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong *Clifton, Western Australia Canada *Clifton, Nova Scotia ...

until he moved to South Africa.

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* 1868 births 1936 deaths South African cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Western Province cricketers South Africa Test cricketers Cricketers from Bristol Clifton Association F.C. players English footballers Wicket-keepers Association footballers not categorized by position {{SouthAfrica-cricket-bio-1860s-stub