Percy John de Paravicini (15 July 1862 – 11 October 1921) was an English amateur

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 ...

er and international

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in the late nineteenth century.

Early life and education

He was born in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, London, the son of Baron James Prior de Paravicini, of Riverside,

Datchet Datchet is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England, on the north bank of the River Thames. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Buckinghamshire, and the Stoke Hundred, the vi ...

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places *Detroit–Windsor, Michigan-Ontario, USA-Canada, North America; a cross-border metropolitan region Australia New South Wales *Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area Queen ...

. He was educated at Aldin House,

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

and

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 ...

, where he was a member of the cricket eleven from 1878 to 1881, being captain in 1880 and 1881.

Cricket career

De Paravicini was one of an elite few to have played for the

cricket XI for four consecutive years, and arguably he was one of the best players the school has had. He was captain in 1880 and 1881 (i.e. Keeper of the Field). He played against his brother,

Harry Harry may refer to: Television * ''Harry'' (American TV series), 1987 comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (New Zealand TV series), 2013 crime drama starring Oscar K ...

, in the annual

Eton v Harrow The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual match between public school rivals Eton College and Harrow School. It is the oldest modern sporting rivalry between two schools, one of the longest-running annual sporting fixtures in the world and ...

cricket match held at

Lord's Cricket Ground Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. He made his first-class debut for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

on 15 August 1881 at Old Trafford, Manchester in the County Tournament 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 ...

. He continued to appear for Middlesex throughout August, playing in four county matches, scoring only 33 runs and taking one wicket. He was a right-handed middle-order batsman, a slow round-arm bowler and an outstanding fielder. In the autumn of 1881 he went up to

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 ...

where he won a cricket blue in each of his four years (1882 to 1885). He played his first cricket match for the University on 25 May 1882 against the "Gentlemen of England". In 1882 he appeared six times 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 ...

. 1883 was his best season, making 17 appearances (7 for the university, 8 for Middlesex and 2 for representative teams) scoring 595 runs at an average of 24.79 and taking 16 wickets at an average of 20.75. In the match at

The Oval The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...

for the university against

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

in June he made his best score to date with 61 in the first innings and taking 4 wickets for 26 runs. In this match Charles Studd made his best ever score with 175 n.o. as the university won the match by 200 runs. In 1888 he improved his best batting performance, with 77 for Middlesex against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

in June; he scored a total of 485 in the season at an average of 14.69. During his first-class career he played 62 times for Middlesex and 25 for Cambridge University. He also played for

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

from 1899 to 1911.

Football career

he won his blue for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

in 1883. A "speedy, two-footed defender", he appeared in two

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

Finals for

Old Etonians This is a list of notable former pupils of Eton College, a 13–18 public fee-charging and boarding secondary school for boys in Eton, Berkshire, England. Former pupils of the school are known as Old Etonians. Former pupils Politics *Robert ...

, being on the winning side in

1882 Events January * January 2 ** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. ** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in New York at the ...

against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

, but losing out the following year to

Blackburn Olympic Blackburn Olympic Football Club was an English football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire in the late 19th century. Although the club was only in existence for just over a decade, it is significant in the history of football in England as the ...

. In the 1882 final, he was part of the last "all amateur" side to win the FA Cup as well as the last team from south of Birmingham to win it during the nineteenth century. The Old Etonians fielded a team with nine players with previous FA Cup final experience, having reached the final four times in the previous seven seasons. In the match itself, de Paravicini and Arthur Kinnaird managed to contain the Blackburn Rovers forwards, whilst the Old Boys' forwards continually created problems for the Rovers' defence until

Reginald Macaulay Reginald Heber Macaulay (24 August 1858 – 15 December 1937) was an amateur English footballer and merchant. He won the FA Cup with Old Etonians in 1882 and made one appearance for England in 1881 playing as a forward. Family background Ma ...

managed to steer the ball between the Blackburn goalposts for the only goal of the game. In February and March

1883 Events January * January 4 – ''Life'' magazine is founded in Los Angeles, California, United States. * January 10 – A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, kills 73 people. * January 16 – ...

he was selected for all three

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 ...

internationals, against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. England comfortably defeated the Welsh 5–0 (with a

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from Clement Mitchell) and the Irish 7–0, but lost out to the Scots by the odd goal in five. On 31 March 1883, the Old Etonians reached the

FA Cup final The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...

for the third consecutive year and were comfortable favourites to defeat

. Olympic however were well organised and defeated the Old Boys 2–1 after

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

. After his exploits in the FA Cup and for England, de Paravicini made occasional appearances for the Corinthians. He also played for Windsor football club and made representative appearances for London, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, and The South versus The North.

Honours

Old Etonians *

winner:

finalist:

Life outside sport

At Eton he was a president of 'Pop'; the group of 25 elected prefects. He was a J.P. for

and during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

took command of the

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Platoon. He was decorated with the Commander, Royal Victorian Order (C.V.O.). He is also credited with being on the inaugural committee for Stoke Park Club based in

Stoke Poges Stoke Poges () is a village and civil parish in south-east Buckinghamshire, England. It is centred north-north-east of Slough, its post town, and is southeast of Farnham Common. In 2021, it had a population of 5,067. Geography Hamlets withi ...

, and the only member of the Corinthians on the committee at the time.

Family and death

On 21 May 1891, he married Lady Marcia Charlotte Maria Cholmondeley, daughter of Charles George, the Viscount Malpas. His brother, Harry Farquhar de Paravicini, married Lady Marcia's sister, Lady Eva Harriet Cholmondeley. They lived in the family home at Riverside, Datchet and had three sons. He died on 11 October 1921 at Hill Fields,

Pangbourne Pangbourne is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in the West Berkshire unitary area of the county of Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has shops, churches, schools and a village hall. Outside its nucleated village, grouped developed are ...

, Berkshire, England aged 59 following an operation. His obituary in ''

Wisden ''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 ...

'' stated: "Few men personally more popular have ever been seen in the cricket field. His career was in one respect peculiar. He was in proportion a far greater force in his school days than he ever became in first-class matches."

References

External links

* *
Profile at www.englandfc.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Paravicini, Percy 1862 births Footballers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea People from Kensington Cricketers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea 1921 deaths People educated at Eton College English people of Italian descent Italian British sportspeople Sportspeople of Italian descent Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge England men's international footballers English men's footballers Old Etonians F.C. players Cambridge University A.F.C. players Corinthian F.C. players English cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Middlesex cricketers Buckinghamshire cricketers Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order I Zingari cricketers Buckinghamshire cricket captains Gentlemen cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Men's association football defenders C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers A. J. Webbe's XI cricketers North v South cricketers