Sidney Castle (21 January 1864 – 5 December 1937) 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. He played five first-class 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 ...

between 1890 and 1893.Sidney Castle

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 9 March 2017. He worked professionally in the

ship breaking Ship breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship scrapping, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships either as a source of Interchangeable parts, parts, which can be sol ...

business throughout his life and was an influential breeder of

fox terrier Fox Terriers are two different breeds of the terrier dog type: the Smooth Fox Terrier and the Wire Fox Terrier. Both of these breeds originated in the 19th century from a handful of dogs who are descended from earlier varieties of United Kingdo ...

Early life

Castle was born at

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

in 1864, the son of Sidney Nash Castle and his wife Helen (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Downey).Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 105–106.
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 7 August 2022.) The family lived at

Kingston-on-Thames Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...

and he was briefly 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 ...

, joining the school in January 1878 and leaving the following year.''Rugby School Register'', 1891, vol. III (1874 to 1887), p. 61. Rugby: AJ Lawrence.
Available online
Retrieved 2 September 2022.) He did not feature in the school cricket XI but developed a reputation as an excellent opening batsman in club cricket. He played mainly for the Blackheath and Charlton Park Cricket Clubs in west Kent and for

Surbiton Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the Historic counties of England, historic county of ...

in Surrey, and is known to have scored more than 50

centuries A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A ...

, including a score of 200 runs in 1892.Castle, Mr Sidney
Supplementary obituaries in 1936 and 1937, ''

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 ...

'', 1938. Retrieved 2 September 2022.Tait R, Tait L (2013) ''History of Castles Shipbreaking'', chapter 7.
Available online
Retrieved 3 September 2022.)

Cricket

As a "technicality correct, stylish and free scoring batsman" who played with "good style", Castle first played for Kent in June 1890, making his debut in a non-first-class match against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...

. Despite scoring only 17 runs in the match, he made his first-class debut the following month in a

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

match 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, ...

at Town Malling, scoring six runs as Kent won by an innings.Sidney Castle
CricketArchive. Retrieved 3 September 2022. The following May he appeared twice in the Championship and at the beginning of June played against Warwickshire again, and in June 1893 played two more matches for the Kent First XI, a Championship match against

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 ...

and a match against the touring Australians, both matches at

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Roche ...

. Despite his reputation, Castle scored only 25 runs in his five first-class appearances, with a top score of just six. He played occasionally for the Kent Second XI, with little more success, but remained prolific in club cricket―in 1901 he scored four centuries in successive matches. He bowled slow right-arm spin deliveries in club cricket, but did not bowl in first-class matches.

Professional and family life

Professionally, Castle joined Henry Castle and Sons, his father's firm of

ship breakers Ship breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship scrapping, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships either as a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for t ...

and timber merchants which operated on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

at Baltic Wharf in central London,

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

and Charlton.Sidney Nash Castle
Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2022. The company's headquarters was at

Millbank Millbank is an area of central London in the City of Westminster. Millbank is located by the River Thames, east of Pimlico and south of Westminster. Millbank is known as the location of major government offices, Burberry headquarters, the Mill ...

and it is likely that Castle was born here. Henry Castle and Sons was liquidated in 1904, and a new company, Castles Shipbreaking Ltd, established in 1906. Although Castle may have worked for the company, he was not a shareholder or director and in 1911 left Kent to work as general manager at

Hughes Bolckow Hughes Bolckow formerly ''Messrs, Hughes, Bolckow, and Co., Limited'' was a well-known shipbreaking company based in Blyth, Northumberland. Background Intending to create an industrial park for dismantling obsolete warships in 1911, the compa ...

, a ship breaking yard at Blyth on the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...

. He moved to

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

and established his own ship breaking business towards the end of 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 ...

, specialising in the breaking up metal hulled ships. In 1924 incorporated his business as The Plymouth and Devonport Shipbreaking Company.Tait & Tait, chapter 10.
Available online
Retrieved 3 September 2022.) The company was placed in

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especia ...

in 1930 and Castle worked for a ship breaking firm owned by William Ball, who had first worked alongside his father's firm, until his death. The firm took over the London-based business in 1933 and was renamed Castle's Shipbreaking Limited. Castle initially lived at Blackheath, and married Katherine Batho in 1888; the couple had three children. Their son, also named Sidney, was killed in the

whilst serving as a lieutenant in the 6th battalion of the

Middlesex Regiment The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1966. The regiment was formed, as the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), in 1881 as part of the Childers Re ...

.Sidney Batho Castle

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

. Retrieved 3 September 2022. After moving to Blyth, Castle developed a new relationship and a second son was born. A keen breeder of

s, he was a member of the Fox Terrier Club, and served on its committee for over 30 years, and was a member

The Kennel Club The Royal Kennel Club (KC) is the official kennel club of the United Kingdom. It is the oldest recognised kennel club in the world. Its role is to oversee various canine activities including dog shows, dog agility and working trials. It also ...

in the early 20th century and regularly judged at dog shows. He wrote two books about the breed, ''A Monograph of the Fox-terrier'' (1910) and ''Breeding Fox-terriers'' (1927). Castle died in 1937 at

Plymstock Plymstock is a commuter suburb of Plymouth and former civil parish in the English county of Devon. Geography Situated on the east bank of the River Plym, Plymstock is geographically and historically part of the South Hams. It comprises the ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

aged 73.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Castle, Sidney 1864 births 1937 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers Cricketers from the City of Westminster People from Westminster People educated at Rugby School