Freddie Calthorpe

The Honourable
Freddie Calthorpe
	Calthorpe in 1920
Personal information
Full name	Frederick Somerset Gough Calthorpe
Born	27 May 1892; Kensington, London, England
Died	19 November 1935 (aged 43); Worplesdon, Surrey, England
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm medium
International information
National side	England (1930);
Test debut	11 January 1930 v West Indies
Last Test	12 April 1930 v West Indies
Career statistics
	Source: CricInfo, 5 April 2018

Frederick Somerset Gough Calthorpe (27 May 1892 – 19 November 1935), styled The Honourable from 1912, was an English first-class cricketer.

Born in London, Calthorpe ("pronounced with the first syllable rhyming with 'tall' and not with 'shall'")^[1] was a member of the Gough-Calthorpe family, the son of Somerset Frederick Gough-Calthorpe, who inherited the title of 8th Baron Calthorpe in 1912. Freddie Calthorpe was educated at Windlesham House School, Repton and Jesus College, Cambridge.^[2]^[3] He served in the Royal Air Force during World War I.^[4]

In a first-class career that extended from 1911 to 1935, Calthorpe played cricket for Sussex, Cambridge University, Warwickshire and England. He toured with Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) to Australia and New Zealand in 1922–23, a trip that also served as a honeymoon for him and his bride Dorothy.^[5] He captained Warwickshire from 1920 to 1929, and also led a strong MCC team on a tour of the West Indies in 1925–26.^[4]

He captained England in his only four Test matches: on the first ever Test tour of the West Indies in 1929–30, which was drawn 1–1. This tour was played simultaneously to another England Test tour to New Zealand, where England were captained by Harold Gilligan.^[4] During the tour, in a speech he gave in Barbados, he condemned the bowling tactic, later known as bodyline, which had been used by the West Indian fast bowler Learie Constantine.^[6]^[7]

He died of cancer^[8] in Worplesdon, Surrey.

Calthorpe is distantly related to the cricket commentator Henry Blofeld, and more closely to the England captain H. D. G. Leveson Gower and the early cricket patron John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset.^[9]

References

^ Rowland Ryder (1995) Cricket Calling, Faber & Faber, London, p. 113. ISBN 0571174752.
^ CALTHORPE, Hon. Frederick Somerset Gough-, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014, accessed 12 November 2016)
^ Wilson, G. Herbert (1937). Windlesham House School: History and Muster Roll 1837–1937. London: McCorquodale & Co. Ltd.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Freddie Calthorpe". Cricinfo. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
^ David Kynaston, Archie's Last Stand: M.C.C. in New Zealand 1922-23, Queen Anne Press, London, 1984, p. 34.
^ Pelham Warner, "Obituary", The Cricketer, Spring Annual 1936, p. 50.
^ "Freddie Calthorpe passes away at the age of 43". cricketcountry.com. 19 November 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
^ Ryder, Cricket Calling, p. 114.
^ "Henry Blofeld: Nephew of an England captain?". CricketCountry. 28 November 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2014.

External links

Media related to Freddie Calthorpe at Wikimedia Commons
Freddie Calthorpe at ESPNcricinfo
Brief footage of Calthorpe from British Pathe (at 4.12, 5.51 and 6.53)

Sporting positions
Preceded by Jack White	English national cricket captain with Harold Gilligan 1929/1930	Succeeded by Percy Chapman
Preceded by George Stephens	Warwickshire County Cricket Captain 1920–1929	Succeeded by Bob Wyatt