Kenneth McAlpine (11 April 1858 – 10 February 1923) was an English local government representative, a wine merchant and a

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

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and for teams led by

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 Ga ...

in North America. He was born at

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, and died at

Loose Loose may refer to: Places *Loose, Germany *Loose, Kent, a parish and village in southeast England People * Loose (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Loose'' (B'z album), a 1995 album by B'z * ''Loose'' (Crazy Horse album), ...

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 341–342.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 7 August 2022.) Educated at

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia **Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an international ...

, McAlpine left school early and was articled to a brewery in Maidstone, but left to become a tea-planter in India. Returning to England, he bought a wine merchant's business and also became a director of a different Maidstone brewery; he also involved himself in local politics as a councillor on

Kent County Council Kent County Council is a county council that governs most of the county of Kent in England. It is the upper tier of elected local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council h ...

and was chairman of the local

Unionist Association Unionist may refer to: *A member or supporter of a trade union Europe United Kingdom *Unionism in the United Kingdom *Unionism in Ireland *Unionism in Scotland *Unionist Party (Scotland) * Scottish Conservative & Unionist Association *Conservati ...

in Maidstone. McAlpine's cricket career was brief, but he had a long and enduring influence on the game in Kent as an administrator and a talent-spotter. He played three matches as a right-handed batsman for Kent in 1885 and 1886, but his highest score was only 10. He also went to North America on cricket tours organised and led by his friend Lord Hawke in 1891-92 and

1894 Events January–March * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United S ...

; on both tours, first-class matches were played, but McAlpine appeared in just one of them, on the 1891-92 tour. McAlpine was for many years the secretary of the Mote Cricket Club in Maidstone where he also played, and his talent in spotting potential cricketers led to him being brought on to Kent County Cricket Club committees; he was serving as president of the county club in the year of his death. He did not marry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McAlpine, Kenneth 1858 births 1923 deaths 19th-century male tennis players English male tennis players English cricketers Kent cricketers Lord Hawke's XI cricketers Sportspeople from Leamington Spa British people in colonial India