Edward Peake

Edward Peake (29 March 1860 – 3 January 1945) was a Wales international rugby union three-quarter and county cricketer. Educated at Oriel College, Oxford, Peake would win a Blue for cricket before representing Gloucestershire. Peake is most notable for being a member of the first Wales rugby union team that played England in 1881. In his later life he became a teacher and Anglican minister.

For the South Australian magistrate and parliamentarian, see Edward John Peake.

Edward Peake
Birth nameEdward Peake
Date of birth(1860-03-20)20 March 1860
Place of birthTidenham, England
Date of death3 January 1945(1945-01-03) (aged 84)
Place of deathHuntingdonshire, England
SchoolMarlborough College
UniversityOriel College, Oxford
Rugby union career
Position(s) Three-quarter
Amateur team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
?
?
1880–1881		 Oxford University RFC
Chepstow RFC
Newport RFC		 ()
National team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
1881 Wales 1 (0)

Personal life

He was born in Tidenham,[1] Gloucestershire to Richard Peake of Chepstow and his wife Gertrude Peake. He was educated first at Marlborough College, and matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford in 1880, graduating B.A. in 1883 and M.A. in 1886.[2]

While at Oxford Peake won Blues in both cricket and athletics and represented the university rugby team. He had a brief career in rugby, curtailed by injury, but was able to have a longer cricketing career, representing Gloucestershire and Berkshire.

Peake was a school teacher by profession and became assistant master at two private schools at Southborne and Clifton before later teaching at Clifton College. From 1885 until 1896 he was assistant master at Giggleswick School in Yorkshire, before gaining his first headship, at Bradford College, a post he held from 1896 to 1909. In 1909 he gained a position as chaplain of Christ Church, Oxford where he was also the headmaster of their Cathedral Choir School. By 1921, Peake had left education and was the rector of Bluntisham in Huntingdonshire, where he died on 3 January 1945.

Edward Peake left money in his will for a school to be built, Edward Peake Middle School on Potton Road, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.

Rugby career
Peake sat in middle row, second from left, with the first Wales international team, 1881.

Peake first played rugby at Marlborough College, before representing Oxford, though he did not win a sporting Blue.[3] Peake later played rugby for Chepstow and while representing the club was chosen by Richard Mullock as one of the Welsh XV to face England in the very first Wales rugby international. The first Welsh team was mainly chosen from the geographic distribution of the representative clubs, so Mulloch could appease the different club regions of Wales, and the university pedigree of the players.[4] Peake would have fitted both these categories, and would have been known to Mullock as his Newport team had played Chepstow twice in the 1879–1880 season.[5] Peake played at three-quarters alongside the team captain James Bevan, in a game that quickly turned into a national embarrassment when England scored 13 tries without reply. This first historic game would be Peake's one and only international rugby cap, along with eight other members of the Welsh squad. From that first Welsh squad, Peake was one of three players who later became Anglican clergymen, the others being captain, Bevan and future Wales' captain Charlie Newman.[6]

Peake later played a single game for first-class Welsh team Newport RFC, but his rugby career would be cut short after a hurdling accident at Oxford.

International matches played

Wales[7]

Cricket career

Peake first played cricket for Marlborough College, where he was a member of the cricket eleven in 1878, captaining the team in 1879. At Oriel College he joined the University cricket team, playing from the 1880 season through to 1883, winning a Sporting Blue. Peake played in 46 first-class cricket matches, 26 of them for Gloucester, and played alongside E. M. and W. G. Grace. He also played minor counties championship cricket with Berkshire. As a first-class cricketer he took 116 wickets as a right-arm fast bowler, and averaged 13.07 runs with the bat in 80 innings.[8]

Bibliography
  • Smith, David; Williams, Gareth (1980). Fields of Praise: The Official History of The Welsh Rugby Union. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-0766-3.
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References
  1. "Newport RFC profile". Archived from the original on 17 June 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2009.
  2. Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Peake, Edward" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  3. Although several websites state that Peake won an Oxford Blue, it is not mentioned at Cricketarchive Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine or in the comprehensive list of Oxford Sporting Blues in Rothmans Rugby Yearbook 1981–82, Vivian Jenkins, pg148 ISBN 0-907574-05-X
  4. Smith (1980), pg 40.
  5. Smith (1980), pg 38.
  6. Smith (1980), pg 7.
  7. Smith (1980), pg 470.
  8. cricket statistics for Edward Peake cricinfo.com
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