Ronald Henry Fox (23 January 1880 – 27 August 1952) was a New Zealand cricketer and British army officer. Ronald Fox was born in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. His father worked for the Bank of New Zealand in the nearby town of Milton. After attending

Haileybury and Imperial Service College Haileybury is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) near Hertford in England. It is a member of the Rugby Group and, though originally a major boys' public school in the Victorian era, it is now co-educational, enrol ...

in England from 1893 to 1898, he played club cricket in England, usually as a wicketkeeper, including a few games for Kent Second XI. He had played only four

first-class matches 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 various teams between 1904 and 1906 when he was selected in 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 ...

side that toured New Zealand in 1906–07. Fox played 10 of the 11 first-class matches on the tour, including the two unofficial Tests against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

at the end of the tour. He made his highest first-class score in the second match against Otago, when he made 54 and put on 134 for the opening partnership with Peter Randall Johnson. He continued to play for MCC in England until the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He served as a captain in the Royal Field Artillery from 1914 to 1919. He was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

and was mentioned in despatches. In 1927, when the New Zealand cricket team were touring England for the first time, they invited him to play in one of their first-class matches. Aged 47, and 17 years after his previous first-class match, he opened the batting and made 4. The New Zealanders nevertheless beat the

Civil Service cricket team A Civil Service cricket team made just one appearance in first-class cricket, when they played the touring New Zealanders, who were on their first tour of England, at the Civil Service Sports Ground in Chiswick in 1927. The New Zealanders proved ...

, who were playing what turned out to be their only first-class match, by an innings.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Ronald 1880 births 1952 deaths People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College New Zealand cricketers Pre-1930 New Zealand representative cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Cricketers from Dunedin New Zealand recipients of the Military Cross Royal Field Artillery officers H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers British Army personnel of World War I Military personnel from Dunedin