Reginald James Hugh Arbuthnot (2 June 1853 – 19 September 1917) was an English businessman and 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 who played two

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 ...

matches for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

.Reginald Arbuthnot

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved 2017-03-20.

Early life

Arbuthnot was born 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 ...

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, ...

, the son of William Urquhart Arbuthnot and Elizabeth Arbuthnot. His father was a partner in the Indian banking firm

Arbuthnot & Co Arbuthnot & Co was a mercantile bank, based in Madras, India. It had been founded as Francis Latour & Co in the late 18th century and then became Arbuthnot De Monte & Co. It failed spectacularly on 22 October 1906. In the last quarter of 1906, M ...

based in

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

and was a member of the Indian Council.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), p. 29.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2020-12-21.) He was the grandson of

Sir William Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet Sir William Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet of Edinburgh FRSE (24 December 1766 – 18 September 1829) was a Scottish landowner and politician. He served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh and Lord Lieutenant of the City of Edinburgh. Early life William w ...

. The family lived at Brigden Place in

Bexley Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Ch ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and Arbuthnot was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

.Mitchell AT (1902) ''Rugby School Register'', vol.2, p.287. Rugby: A.J. Lawrence.
Available online
Retrieved 2019-12-21.) Whilst at Rugby he played cricket in the school XI.

Business career

After leaving school Arbuthnot spent an extended time in India on business working for the family firm as well as working in England as a coffee broker. He was a member of the

Madras Legislative Council Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was the upper house of the former bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It began its existence as Madras Legislative Council, the first provincial legislature for Madras Presidency. It was initia ...

in 1891–1892.Ambrose D (2003
Brief profile of RJH Arbuthnot
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-03-20. The firm failed "spectacularly" in 1906, although Arbuthnot was wealthy enough to continue to live in London without needing to work.

Cricket

Arbuthnot played cricket twice for Kent. His first-class debut came in 1881 and, after time in India, his second appearance was in 1890. He played non first-class cricket for a range of teams, including MCC, Blackheath Cricket Club and Madras Cricket Club.Reginald Arbuthnot
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-08-31.

Later life and family

Arbuthnot died suddenly of heart failure in 1917 aged 64 leaving an estate worth over £14,000. His nephew, Hugh Spottiswoode, also played two first-class matches for Kent.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arbuthnot, Reginald English cricketers Kent cricketers

Reginald Reginald is a masculine given name in the English language meaning "king". Etymology and history The name Reginald comes from Latin meaning "king" and "ruler" symbolizing authority and leadership. It comes from combining Latin “ rex” meaning ...

1853 births 1917 deaths Cricketers from Brighton People educated at Rugby School