Rev. Hon. Charles Frederick Lyttelton (26 January 1887 – 3 October 1931) was an English priest and

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 ...

er from the

Lyttelton family The Lyttelton family (sometimes spelled Littleton) is a British nobility, British aristocratic family. Over time, several members of the Lyttelton family were made knights, baronets and peers. Hereditary titles held by the Lyttelton family inclu ...

. He played 31 games for

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

and

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) in the early twentieth century.

Early life and family

Lyttelton was born in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropo ...

, London, the third son of

Charles Lyttelton, 8th Viscount Cobham Charles George Lyttelton, 8th Viscount Cobham (27 October 1842 – 9 June 1922), known as The Lord Lyttelton from 1876 to 1889, was a British peer and politician from the Lyttelton family. He was a Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Member of Parliament ...

. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, and became a

clergyman Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

."Obituaries in 1931." ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'', 1932. He served in the

Royal Army Chaplains' Department The Royal Army Chaplains' Department (RAChD) is an all-officer department that provides ordained clergy to minister to the British Army. History The Army Chaplains' Department (AChD) was formed by Royal Warrant of 23 September 1796; until the ...

in the First World War and was awarded the

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

in the

1919 Birthday Honours The 1919 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were ...

for distinguished service in France and Flanders. In 1920, he married Sibell Eleanor Maud Kay-Shuttleworth (''née'' Adeane), daughter of

Charles Adeane Charles Robert Whorwood Adeane (2 November 1863 – 11 February 1943) was a British army officer. Background Adeane was the only son of the politician Henry John Adeane (born 1833), Henry John Adeane and his wife Elizabeth Biddulph, Baroness Bi ...

and widow of Hon. Edward James Kay-Shuttleworth, (son of the 3rd Baron Shuttleworth) who was killed in 1917 in a military accident. They had two sons, Lt. John Anthony Lyttelton (1921–1944), who was killed in Italy in the Second World War, and a son who died in infancy. John Anthony was also educated at Eton and was in the cricket XI in 1939–40. His stepchildren were Charles Kay-Shuttleworth, 4th Baron Shuttleworth (1917–1975) and Pamela Kay-Shuttleworth, who married as her first husband Keith Rous, 5th Earl of Stradbroke.

Cricket career

Lyttelton appeared in a minor match in August 1906 when he played at

Stoke Edith Stoke Edith is a village in the English county of Herefordshire, situated on the A438 road between Hereford and Ledbury. The population in 1801 of Stoke Edith parish was 332. The 14th-century church of St Mary is a grade I listed building. ...

playing for a team of the same name against "Gentlemen of the Netherlands" and took three wickets including that of

Carst Posthuma Carst Jan Posthuma (11 January 1868 – 21 December 1939) was a Dutch cricket player of the late 19th/early 20th century. He was a left-handed batsman and left-arm fast bowler. Posthuma played 72 times for the Dutch national team up to 1928, w ...

. Two weeks later he made his first-class debut for Worcestershire against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, though he bowled only a single over (which cost ten runs) and managed 6 and 13 with the bat. His maiden first-class wicket, that of

Jack Sharp John Sharp (15 February 1878 – 28 January 1938) was an English sportsman who is most famous for his eleven-season playing career at Everton from 1899 to 1910. It saw him win two caps for his country, as well as being a cricketer for Lancash ...

, had to wait until his next game, for Cambridge against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

in May 1907. Lyttelton had a very good match, taking 2-26 and 5-33 (his best innings performance) as well as scoring 25

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

from number eleven. Cambridge recorded a crushing win by an innings and 204 runs, which remains their second highest margin of victory.Largest Margin of Innings Victory
CricketArchive. Retrieved 9 September 2006. 1908 was Lyttelton's most productive season, as in ten matches (all but one for Cambridge; the other was for Worcestershire) he took a total of 47 wickets, including 5–75 against

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. He won his

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

that year too, his five wickets in the

Varsity Match A varsity match in Britain and Ireland is a fixture, especially of a sporting event or team, between university teams, usually the highest-level team, or varsity team, in that sport. The University Match in cricket between Oxford University an ...

proving important as Cambridge beat

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

by the narrow margin of two wickets. He also played against Oxford the following year (though he took no wickets), and played five times for Worcestershire, although he never claimed more than three wickets in an innings that summer. Lyttelton played his last three first-class matches in 1910: two for Worcestershire and his one and only appearance for MCC, a badly rain-affected game against his old university in which he neither batted nor bowled. For his county he took three wickets in each of the two matches he played, with his final first-class wicket being that of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

's Alexander Johnston. In this, his final game, Lyttelton captained Worcestershire for the only time in his career. A very large number of Lyttelton's relations played cricket to a high standard: his grandfather, father, brother, five uncles and a nephew all made at least one first-class appearance, with one of those uncles,

Alfred Lyttelton Alfred Lyttelton KC (7 February 1857 – 5 July 1913) was a British politician and sportsman from the Lyttelton family who excelled at both football and cricket. During his time at university he participated in Varsity Matches in five sport ...

, playing four

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the 1880s. Two of his brothers-in-law were also first-class cricketers. Lyttelton died in

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

, London, at age 44.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyttelton, Charles Frederick 1887 births 1931 deaths Recipients of the Military Cross English cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Charles Frederick People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Younger sons of viscounts Cricketers from the City of Westminster People from Marylebone World War I chaplains Royal Army Chaplains' Department officers 20th-century English sportsmen