Philip Menzies Sankey (17 April 1830 – 9 March 1909) was an English clergyman and

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 first-class cricket for both Cambridge and Oxford Universities as well as 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 ...

and served as a clergyman in Hampshire, Italy and Switzerland.

Early life and cricket

He was born at Brompton in

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 ...

in 1830, the eldest son of Richard and Mary Sankey (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Boys). His father was a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

clergyman at

Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...

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. ...

and

Witney Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, and Sankey was educated at

The King's School, Canterbury The King's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for 13 to 18 year old pupils) in Canterbury, Kent, England. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group. It is Britain's ...

. Foster J (1888) ''

Alumni Oxonienses ''Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford'' is a biographical reference work by Joseph Foster (1844–1905), published by Oxford University Press, listing the alumni of the University of Oxford. Foster's work was compiled pri ...

'', later series, S–Z, p. 1254. Oxford: Parker.
Available online
Retrieved 2022-06-25. Als
available online
at

Wikisource Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually rep ...

. Retrieved 2022-06-25.)Sidebotham JS (1865) ''Memorials of the King's School, Canterbury'', p. 117.
Available online
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

. Retrieved 2022-06-25.)Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 472–473.
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 2020-12-21.)First Class Cricketers
The King's School Archives,

. Retrieved 2019-04-18. Whilst still at school he played in a

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 ...

match 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 ...

, playing against the

Gentlemen of Kent 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 ...

at the

St Lawrence Ground The St Lawrence Ground is a cricket ground in Canterbury, Kent. It is the home ground of Kent County Cricket Club and since 2013 has been known as The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, due to commercial sponsorship. It is one of the oldest grounds ...

during the 1848

Canterbury Cricket Week Canterbury Cricket Week is the oldest cricket festival week in England and involves a series of consecutive Kent home matches, traditionally held in the first week in August. It was founded in 1842, although a similar festival week was first hel ...

,Philip Sankey
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-04-18. probably as a late replacement for another player. Sankey went up to

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...

in 1848, graduating in 1852; his father was a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the college, having graduated in 1824. He played club cricket for Farnham, where his father was the

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

, between 1849 and 1852, and in three more first-class cricket matches, playing for

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 ...

in 1850 and 1852 and making a single appearance for

in 1852. His last first-class match was the 1852

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 Cambridge. He played in non-first-class matches for a variety of sides whilst at Oxford, including for Oxfordshire against the

All-England Eleven In English cricket since the first half of the 18th century, various ''ad hoc'' teams have been formed for short-term purposes which have been called England (or sometimes "All-England"; i.e., in the sense of "the rest of England") to play against, ...

in 1850 and for the Gentlemen of Enlgland against the Gentlemen of Sussex the following year. In his four first-class matches he scored a total of 56 runs and took eight wickets, all in the 1852 University Match. His highest score of 27 was made in the same match.Philip Sankey

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 2019-04-18.

Professional life

After graduating, Sankey worked as a master at The Kings School between 1852 and 1855. He was ordained as a

Deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

in 1853 and as a priest in 1854 and was a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

at St Alphege and St Marys church in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

before serving as the rector of

Highclere Highclere (pronounced ) is a village and civil parish situated in the North Wessex Downs (an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. It lies in the northern part of the county, near the B ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, between 1858 and 1868.'' Crockford's Clerical Directory'', 1865, p. 556. London: Horace Cox.
Available online
at

. Retrieved 2022-06-25.) He was chaplain at

Pegli Pegli is a neighbourhood in the west of Genoa, Italy. With a mild climate and a sea promenade, Pegli is mainly a residential area with four public parks and several villas and mansions. It is also known as a tourist resort with some hotels, campi ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

from 1869 to 1872 before moving to

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...

in Switzerland where he was minister at St John's Anglican church between 1879 and 1907. During his time at St Johns, Sankey oversaw extensive building work at the church which was expanded three times, the original building having only been completed the year before Sankey's arrival.Ellis R (2015
St Johns 140th Anniversary Speech
Retrieved 2019-04-18.History, St. John’s Anglican Church, Montreux
St. Peter's Anglican Church. Retrieved 2019-04-18. Sankey wrote ''Prayers for Church Families'' and two

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

texts, ''Catechetical and Devotional Manual'' and ''Catechism of Old Testament History'', a text which was designed for use in

Sunday School A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

s and was considered "second to none" by ''The Literary Churchman'' in 1858.''The Literary Churchman'', 1858, p. 249. London: The Literary Churchman.
Available online
at

. Retrieved 2022-06-25.)

Family and later life

Sankey married Helen Filmer, the daughter of

Sir Edmund Filmer, 8th Baronet Sir Edmund Filmer, 8th Baronet (14 June 1809 – 8 January 1857) was an English Conservative Party politician. Life He was the son of Edmund Filmer, a younger son of Sir Edmund Filmer, 6th Baronet, and his wife Emelia Skene, daughter of George ...

, in 1858; the couple had four children. Sankey died at Montreux in 1909 aged 79.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sankey, Philip 1830 births 1909 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Oxford University cricketers Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford 19th-century English Anglican priests People from Highclere Cricketers from Hampshire