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Frederick Lillywhite (7 July 1829 – 15 September 1866) was a sports outfitter and
cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
ing entrepreneur, who organised the first overseas cricket tour by an English team and published a number of reference works about cricket.


Cricketing dynasty

Lillywhite was born in
Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...
,
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, ...
on 7 July 1829. He was the third son of (Frederick) William Lillywhite (1792–1854), the Sussex bowler known as the "Nonpareil" ("unrivalled"); younger brother of the batsman and umpire John Lillywhite (1826–74); and cousin of James Lillywhite (1842–1929) who captained
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 first Test match played against
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
in
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
in 1877.


Early business activities

Fred and John Lillywhite, as well as their elder brother, James (b. 1825), all went into business as sports outfitters. Perhaps because of this multiplicity of Lillywhites, latter day accounts of their non-cricketing activities sometimes conflict as to who did what. What is clear is that Fred was a manager, probably from 1848 to 1855, in the firm of Lillywhite Brothers, a tobacconist and sports outfitter in
Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...
, then on the outskirts of London. The Lillywhites' father died in 1854 and was buried in
Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...
, North London. The following year Fred went into partnership with the Sussex all-rounder,
John Wisden John Wisden (5 September 1826 – 5 April 1884) was an English cricketer who played 187 first-class cricket matches for three English county cricket teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex. His father, William, was a builder. He attended Brighton's ...
(1826–84), with whom he established a tobacconist and outfitter in New Coventry Street, near Leicester Square, in the West End of London. This partnership did not survive the tour to the United States and Canada in 1859 that Lillywhite (though not himself a player) organised and of which Wisden was a prominent member. By 1860 James Lilywhite (the elder brother) was cricketing coach at
Cheltenham College Cheltenham College is a public school ( fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school opened in 1841 as a Church of England foundation and is known for its outstanding linguis ...
, Gloucestershire, where he also ran an outfitters. John Lillywhite, who had also joined the 1859 tour, was then running a cricketing warehouse near Euston Square, London. This was the forerunner of the present
Lillywhites Lillywhites is a sports retailer based at Piccadilly Circus, London, United Kingdom. It is a division of Frasers Group. History In the 19th century, several members of the Lillywhite family were leading cricketers; another, Fred Lillywhite, o ...
, established in Haymarket in 1863, that, following its acquisition in 1922 by I H Benedictus, moved to the Criterion site in
Piccadilly Circus Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End of London, West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a ''List of road junctions in the Unite ...
in 1925.


''The Guide to Cricketers''

In 1848 (still not 20) Fred Lillywhite had produced the first edition of his ''
The Guide to Cricketers ''The Guide to Cricketers'' was a cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicke ...
'' (known popularly as "Fred's Guide") which was published until the year of his death in 1866. This was, in many respects, the forerunner of ''
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 ...
'', founded by John Wisden in 1864, which has since been published annually, reaching its 100th edition in 1963 and 150th in 2013. From 1867 "Fred's Guide" was incorporated in James Lillywhite's ''Cricketers' Companion'' (first published in 1865 and known as the "Green Lily") which continued in that form until 1880.Christopher Saunders Books (2012) ''Leg Glance''. p. 17 In 1865 the
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 ...
withdrew its support for Lillywhite's Guide. This falling out with the cricketing establishment seems to have arisen from the trenchancy of some of Lillywhite's observations. Significantly, in 1866, ''Wisden'' noted that "John Wisden & Co have avoided making remarks upon the play or players". In the 1865 edition Lillywhite proposed that the standard height of the wicket should be raised from 27 inches to "28, 29, or even 30 inches out of the ground" to help avoid what he regarded as excessively high scores. This recommendation was implemented over sixty years later, in 1931, when the height was increased by an inch and the stumps were also widened.


Tour of the US and Canada (1859)

The touring party of 1859 left Liverpool on the ''SS Nova Scotian'' on 7 September and returned on 11 November. Its members, in addition to Wisden and John Lillywhite, were the captain George Parr (1826–91),
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
(1830–78), William Caffyn (1828–1919), Robert Carpenter (1830–1901), Alfred Diver (1824–1876), James Grundy (1824–1873), Tom Hayward (1835–76), John Jackson (1833–1910), Tom Lockyer (1826–1869) and H. H. Stephenson (1833–1896), who later led the first private tour by an England XI to Australia in 1861. Fred Lillywhite travelled with his groundside tent and printing press. His role on the tour has been described as that of "scorer, reporter, and mentor, not to say Nestor".Alan Gibson (1979) ''The Cricket Captains of England''. Cassel. . The team won all five official matches against a 22 of Lower Canada (by 8 wickets at Montreal, Quebec on 26–27 September), a 22 of the United States (by an innings and 64 runs at Hoboken, NJ on 3–5 October), a different 22 of the United States (by 7 wickets at Philadelphia on 10–12 October), a 22 of Lower Canada (by 10 wickets at Hamilton, Ontario on 17–19 October) and a further 22 of the United States (by an innings and 68 runs at Rochester, NY on 21–25 October). There were also some exhibition matches and an impromptu game of baseball when a match in New York was interrupted by snow. The team made two excursions to view the
Niagara Falls Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York (s ...
. Lillywhite's detailed account of the tour, ''The English Cricketers' Trip to Canada and the United States'', was published in 1860 and reprinted over a century later, in 1980. There was coverage also in the 13th edition of his ''Guide to Cricketers'' and Caffyn gave an account in a memoir, ''Seventy-one Not Out'', published at the end of the century.


Final years

After his break with Wisden, Lillywhite was based at the
Kennington Oval Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between th ...
, home of Surrey County Cricket Club, from where, in 1862, he published ''Scores and Biographies'', a major reference work about cricket since 1772. He published also various scoring books and sheets, as well as scorecards of matches. Lillywhite died at
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
on 15 September 1866 at the age of 37.


References


External links

*
Information on Lillywhite publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lillywhite, Fred Cricket writers 1866 deaths People from Hove 1829 births