Francis Gordon
Lieutenant colonel Francis Arthur Gordon (20 January 1808 – 26 June 1857) was a British Army officer and amateur cricketer. He was a member of the Huntly family, part of the Scottish aristocracy.
Gordon was the youngest son of George Gordon, 9th Marquess of Huntly and his wife Catherine (of the Cope baronets of Bruern).[1] He was born at Orton Hall, the family seat at Orton Longueville in Huntingdonshire in 1808 and was educated at Thistledon School in Rutland before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1828. He won a cricket Blue in 1829.[2]
Gordon played cricket regularly during the late 1820s, including in a total of seven first-class cricket matches, three for the University side, three for MCC and once for the Gentlemen against the Players in 1827.[3] He played alongside his brother, Charles Gordon, 10th Marquess of Huntly, against the Players; his brother had been MCC President in 1821 and both he and Gordon's father were members of the club.[4] Gordon also played in a number of non-first-class matches, including for MCC and sides such as the Gentlemen of Kent.[3]
Gordon joined the 1st Life Guards and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Because of ill health was obliged to relinquish his command in 1855. He married Isabel Grant, daughter of General William Keir Grant, and died in France at Paris in 1857 aged 49.[2][5][6]
References
[edit]- ^ "Huntly, Marquess of (S, 1599)". Cracrofts Peerage. Archived from the original on 11 October 2010. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
- ^ a b "Gordon, the Hon. Francis Arthur (GRDN828FA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b "Francis Gordon". CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
- ^ Carlaw D Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806-1914, pp.7–8. (Available online at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 26 December 2019.)
- ^ Death notice, The Times, London, 2 July 1857, page 12.
- ^ Francis Gordon, CricInfo. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- 1808 births
- 1857 deaths
- Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
- Cambridge University cricketers
- English cricketers
- English cricketers of 1826 to 1863
- 19th-century English sportsmen
- Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
- Gentlemen cricketers
- British Life Guards officers
- House of Gordon
- Younger sons of marquesses
- English cricket biography, 1800s birth stubs