The Reverend John Charles Crawford (29 May 1849 – 21 February 1935), known as Parson Crawford, was an English clergyman and amateur

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. He played for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

between 1872 and 1877.

Life

He was born in Hastings in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

in 1849, the son of Andrew Crawford. His father had played for the Gentlemen of England and his brother,

Frank Fairbairn Crawford Major Frank Fairbairn Crawford (17 June 1850 – 16 January 1900) was a British Army officer who was killed in the Second Boer War. He also played first-class cricket in two countries – in England for Kent County Cricket Club and Marylebone Cr ...

, also played first-class cricket for Kent. Crawford attended University College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1868, aged 18; he graduated B.A. and then M.A. in 1875. He was the chaplain to Cane Hill Hospital in Surrey for 36 years from 1883 until he retired in 1919. He was an honorary curate at St Mary's Church in Merton after his retirement and died at

Wimbledon Chase Wimbledon Chase is a south-west London suburb part of the wider Wimbledon area. It takes its name from Wimbledon Chase railway station and thus it is an informal definition: parts vie with the definitions of Merton Park, which has a tram link s ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

in 1935 aged 85.John Crawford

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2017-04-25. He is buried in the churchyard at St Mary's, Merton.

Cricketer

Crawford made his first-class cricket debut for WG Grace's XI in 1871 against Kent before going on to play 10 times for Kent.John Crawford
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-25. Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 128–129.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-12-21.) He also played for a large number of non-first-class teams, including

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

and Gentlemen's teams in Kent, Hertfordshire and Surrey and for

's Second XI between 1891 and 1894.Crawford, Rev John Charles M.A.
Obituaries in 1935. '' Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1936. Retrieved 2017-04-25. Crawford was a fast bowler and powerful batsman who was "large framed and powerfully built". Three of Crawford's sons were known as cricketers: Jack for Surrey and England;

Reginald Reginald is a masculine given name in the English language. Etymology and history The meaning of Reginald is “King". The name is derived from the Latin ''Reginaldus'', which has been influenced by the Latin word ''regina'', meaning "queen". Th ...

for

; and

Vivian Vivian may refer to: *Vivian (name), a given name and also a surname Toponyms * Vivian, Louisiana, U.S. * Vivian, South Dakota, U.S. * Vivian, West Virginia, U.S. * Vivian Island, Nunavut, Canada * Ballantrae, Ontario, a hamlet in Stouffville, ...

for both Surrey and Leicestershire. His Wisden obituary notes that he "loved the game so much that all his children played from an early age" and that an entire team of Crawford's played on occasion, including at least two of his daughters.Squires N (2013) "The Cricketing Crawfords", ''St Mary's Church, Merton Parish Magazine'', April 2013, pp.25–28.
Available online
. Retrieved 2017-04-25.)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, John 1849 births 1935 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers W. G. Grace's XI cricketers Crawford family