Albert Henry (also known as Alec Henry; c. 1880 – 13 March 1909) was one of the first

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

s to play

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

. He was a right handed

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also ...

. Henry was born in Lowood, Queensland. The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' suggests that his parents may be from the Jagera or Jukambe people. In around 1900, he moved to live at the Deebing Creek Mission near

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

, and played cricket for the Deebing Creek Aboriginal cricket team and then for Bundamba. Tall and thin, and a quick runner, he was an effective fast bowler. He played in seven first-class matches for

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

between March 1902 and April 1905, scoring 36 runs in 13 innings and taking 21 wickets at an average of 32.04. He made his first-class debut in the match between Queensland and

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

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in March 1902. He is thought to have been the first person of Aboriginal descent to play first-class cricket for Queensland. His first match for Queensland became the subject of much media attention in Australia, because it was the first time that two Aboriginal Australians had played in opposing teams at first-class level, with the New South Wales team including Jack Marsh, another fast bowler who had been accused of throwing. Henry was reputedly the fastest bowler in the world. As part of the media promotion of the match-up between the pair, Henry was taken to Ipswich station to meet Marsh. Marsh was reported in the media as having said "Say old man, toss me up a soft one so I can get a smack at you". Marsh took 2/64 and 3/67 and Henry took 2/59 and 1/38 in a drawn match. Marsh and Henry each bowled three of their victims. They also dismissed one another once, each being bowled for nine in their respective team's first innings, and neither batted in their team's second innings, creating some symmetry in the scorecard. Nine was to remain Henry's highest first class batting score. Henry also played against Marsh in his second first-class match, between Queensland and New South Wales at Brisbane in November 1902. Henry scored 2 and 4 not out, and took 0/39 and 5/40, his best single-innings bowling return, but New South Wales won by 77 runs. Henry played against New South Wales at

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in December 1902, scoring 7 and 0 and taking 3/86 and 0/70 as New South Wales won by 2 wickets; against

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at Brisbane in January 1903, taking 3/76 and scoring 4 and 1 not out as Victoria won by an innings and 327 runs; and against the touring MCC side in November 1903, taking 2/60 – the wickets of

Len Braund Leonard Charles Braund (18 October 1875 – 23 December 1955) was a cricketer who played for Surrey, Somerset and England. Len Braund was an all-rounder, a versatile batsman who could defend or attack according to the needs of the game and a l ...

and

Ted Arnold Edward George Arnold (7 November 1876 – 25 October 1942) was an English cricketer who played in ten Test cricket, Test Matches from 1903 to 1907, and most of his 343 first-class cricket, first-class matches for Worcestershire County Cricket ...

– and 0/21 and scoring 0 not out twice, as MCC won by 6 wickets. Braund was caught off the last ball of Henry's first over, and claimed it was the fastest bowling he had played against. He played in his last first-class matches against New South Wales, at Sydney in December 1903, taking 0/57 and 4/49 and scoring 0 and 0*, with New South Wales winning by 2 runs, and at Brisbane in April 1905, taking 1/78 and New South Wales winning by an innings and 12 runs. He moved to South Brisbane to play for a club team. After he was no-balled for throwing in a club match in 1904, he confronted the umpire Albert Crossart, saying that his good balls were no-balled, but the balls he threw deliberately were not. He was suspended and returned to Deebing Creek. After disagreements with the government authorities at Deebing, he was moved to Barambah (now

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) and then

Yarrabah Yarrabah (traditionally ''Jarrabah'' in the Gunggandji language spoken by the indigenous Gunggandji people) is a coastal town and locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Yarrabah, Queensland, Australia. It is an Aboriginal community. In the , t ...

in northern Queensland, where he died of tuberculosis before his 30th birthday.

References

Profile
CricketArchive

Cricinfo
Indigenous History
Queensland Cricket * Ian Diehm, 'Henry, Albert (1880–1909)', ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/henry-albert-12977/text23453, published first in hardcopy 2005, accessed online 24 July 2015. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Albert 1880s births 1909 deaths Queensland cricketers Indigenous Australian cricketers 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Australia People from South East Queensland

See also

References