George Harris, 4th Baron Harris

The Right Honorable
The Lord Harris
GCSI GCIE CB TD ADC
	Harris in the 1880s
Personal information
Full name	George Robert Canning Harris
Born	3 February 1851; St Ann's, Trinidad
Died	24 March 1932 (aged 81); Throwley, Kent
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm roundarm fast
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	England;
Test debut (cap 13)	2 January 1879 v Australia
Last Test	11 August 1884 v Australia
Domestic team information
1870–1911	Kent
1871–1895	Marylebone Cricket Club
1871–1874	Oxford University
Career statistics
	Source: CricInfo, 8 February 2015

Colonel George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, GCSI, GCIE, CB, TD, ADC[1] (3 February 1851 – 24 March 1932), generally known as Lord Harris, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay. He was also an English amateur cricketer, mainly active from 1870 to 1889, who played for Kent and England as captain of both teams. He had a political career from 1885 to 1900 and was for much of his life a highly influential figure in cricket administration through the offices he held with Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). He was President of the Kent County Football Association between 1881 and 1908.

Early life

The Honourable George Harris was born in St Ann's, Trinidad on 3 February 1851 when his father, George Harris, 3rd Baron Harris, was serving as Governor of Trinidad (1846–1854). Harris barely knew his mother who died when he was two years old. In 1854, the family moved to Madras when his father was posted to the governorship there. Harris senior retired in March 1859 and returned to England where he became involved with Kent County Cricket Club as a committee member and, in 1870, club president.

In 1864, at the age of 13, Harris was sent to Eton College to further his education. His first important cricket match was the 1868 Eton versus Harrow fixture at Lord's, when he was seventeen; he scored 23 and 6. In the same fixture the following year, when Cuthbert Ottaway scored 108 to seal victory for Eton by an innings and nineteen runs, Harris was out for 0. In 1870, his last year at Eton, he scored 12 and 7 against Harrow.

His father died in November 1872, whereupon Harris junior succeeded to the barony as 4th Baron Harris. He was already a first-class cricketer by then and was henceforward universally known in the sport as Lord Harris.

Cricket career

Summary of playing career

Harris made his first-class debut for Kent in 1870 after he left Eton. Owing to his position in society, he was immediately elected to the club committee and was associated with Kent cricket for the rest of his life. He went up to Christ Church, Oxford in September 1870 and played for the Oxford University team from 1871 to 1874. He was available to play for Kent in the latter half of each of these seasons and became county captain in succession to South Norton in 1871, although his appointment was not made official until after he left Oxford. Harris held the Kent captaincy until 1889.

He led the English cricket team in Australia and New Zealand in 1878–79 and was a central figure in the events of 8 February 1879 when a crowd riot erupted at a match in Sydney. The team had previously played a match against an All-Australia XI at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and this was later designated Test status as the third-ever Test match. Harris was therefore the second England Test captain after James Lillywhite. Australia, led by Dave Gregory, won the match by 10 wickets.

Harris captained England against Australia on three further occasions. In 1880 at The Oval, in what was later recognised as the inaugural Test match in England, England won by 5 wickets. Harris captained England in two of the Tests played in 1884, his team winning by an innings and 5 runs at Lord's and drawing the final match in the series at The Oval.

The full span of Harris' first-class cricket career was from 1870 to 1911, at 42 seasons one of the longest on record, though he made only seven appearances after 1889 when he relinquished the Kent captaincy so his essential playing career was from 1870 to 1889. He appeared in 224 first-class matches, including four Test matches, as a righthanded batsman who bowled right arm fast with a roundarm action. He scored 9,990 runs in first-class cricket with a highest score of 176 among eleven centuries and held 190 catches. He took 75 wickets with a best analysis of five for 57.[2] Even in old age he was a capable cricketer, scoring a fifty for I Zingari v West Kent in his 71st year and 25 against Philadelphia Pilgrims at Lord's, 53 years after he had made his first appearance at the home of cricket.[3] [4]

Throwing issue

In the early 1880s there were a number of bowlers who were widely considered to have unfair actions, with the Lancashire pair of Jack Crossland and George Nash coming in for particular criticism. After playing for Kent against Lancashire in 1885, when he faced the bowling of Crossland and Nash, Harris decided to take action. He persuaded the Kent committee to cancel the return fixture. Later that season, Crossland was found to have broken his residential qualification for Lancashire by living in Nottinghamshire, and Nash dropped out of the side. The two counties resumed playing each other the following season. Harris's Wisden obituarist wrote: "...there can be no doubt the action of Lord Harris, even if it did not entirely remove the throwing evil, had a very healthy effect on the game."[5]

Administration

Lord Harris caricatured in Vanity Fair.

Harris had a long association with Lord's and MCC as both player and administrator. In 1862, aged eleven, he was practising at Lord's. It was not till 1929, at the age of 78, that he played there for the last time, representing MCC v Indian Gymkhana.[6] He was president of MCC in 1895, a trustee from 1906 to 1916 and treasurer from 1916 to 1932. Additionally, he was at various times chairman of both the MCC finance and cricket sub-committees. Through these offices, Harris wielded considerable power in the world of cricket and it was written of him: "No man has exercised so strong an influence on the cricket world so long..."[7]

In July 1909, Harris chaired a meeting of representatives of England, Australia and South Africa which launched the Imperial Cricket Conference and agreed rules to control Test cricket between the three nations. In 1926, he presided at a meeting at The Oval, when it was agreed that "governing bodies of cricket in countries within the Empire to which cricket teams are sent, or which send teams to England" should be eligible for ICC membership. The meeting had the effect of creating three new Test-playing nations: West Indies, New Zealand and India.[8]

Harris was a controversial figure in the world of cricket, revered by cricket's MCC-based establishment[9] and heavily criticised elsewhere.[10] Not all thought that he used his power well. Alan Gibson once wrote that he was "an antediluvian old tyrant", though he later retracted this, saying that Harris was a more complex figure than that.[6] But, complex or not, Harris was never accused by contemporaries of being an intellectual. He might have robbed England of the services of one of its greatest batsmen, Wally Hammond, who had been born in Kent but chose to play for Gloucestershire, where he had gone to school. Hammond had not fulfilled the required period of residence to qualify for Gloucestershire and, once Harris became aware of this, Hammond was barred from playing for them until the necessary time had elapsed. The affair resulted in Harris complaining about what he called "bolshevism" influencing cricket.

Political and military career

Lord Harris c. 1905

Harris was politically active as a member of the Conservative Party, serving in the House of Lords as Under-Secretary of State for India from 25 June 1885, then as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War from 4 August 1886 to 1890. He was appointed Governor of the Presidency of Bombay in British India from 1890 to 1895.

Bombay

His governorship of Bombay was not without extensive criticism, with one anonymous writer penning a poem expressing the hope that Bombay would not suffer too greatly from Harris' political inexperience.[11] He was mainly notable for his enthusiastic pursuit of cricket amongst his fellow Europeans in the colony, at the expense of connecting with the native population. When the interracial Bombay riots of 1893 broke out, Harris was out of the city at Poona enjoying cricket matches. He returned to Bombay only on the ninth day of rioting, and then primarily to attend a cricket match there.[11] Many later writers credited Harris with almost single-handedly introducing and developing the sport in India. The game was, however, well established among the natives before his arrival. Furthermore, in 1890, he rejected a petition signed by over 1,000 locals to relocate European polo players to another ground so that the locals could use the area for cricket matches. It was only in 1892 that he granted a parcel of land to the newly formed Muslim Gymkhana for a cricket field, adjacent to land already used by the Parsee Gymkhana. His reluctance to do so is evident in his written comment:[11]

I don't see how we can refuse these applicants; but I will steadfastly refuse any more grants once a Gymkhana has been established under respectable auspices by each nationality, and tell applicants that ground having been set apart for their nationality they are free to take advantage of it by joining that particular club.

When Harris left India, having virtually ignored famine, riots and sectarian unrest, a publisher circulated a collection of newspaper extracts from his time as governor. The introduction stated:[11]

Never during the last hundred years has a Governor of Bombay been so sternly criticised and never has he met with such widespread unpopularity on account of his administration as Lord Harris.

Later career

Memorial to George Robert Canning Harris, Canterbury

On his return to England, Harris again served in the Conservative Government as a Lord in Waiting to Queen Victoria from 16 July 1895 to 4 December 1900.

He was appointed lieutenant-colonel in command of the Royal East Kent Yeomanry on 6 October 1897. During the Second Boer War, he held a commission as Assistant Adjutant-General for the Imperial Yeomanry from 28 February 1900,[12][13] until he resigned in April 1901.

Death and family

Memorial stone to Lord Harris in the Harris Garden at Lord's

Harris died in March 1932, aged 82.

He married in 1874 the Honourable Lucy Ada Jervis, daughter of Carnegie Robert John Jervis, 3rd Viscount St Vincent, and was succeeded in the barony by their son George Harris, 5th Baron Harris.

Arms

Coat of arms of George Harris, 4th Baron Harris
Crest On a mural crown Or a royal tiger passant-guardant Vert striped Or spotted of the first pierced in the breast with an arrow of the last vulned Gules charged on the forehead with a Persian character for Ryder and crowned with an Eastern coronet both of the first. Escutcheon Vert on a chevron embattled, erminois between three hedgehogs Or, as many bombs Sable fired Proper a chief of augmentation thereon the gates and fortress of Seringapatam the draw-bridge let down and the Union flag of Great Britain and Ireland hoisted over the standard of Tippoo Sahib all Proper. Supporters Dexter a Grenadier soldier of the 73rd Regiment in his regimentals Proper supporting with his exterior hand a staff thereon hoisted the union flag of Great Britain and Ireland over that of the standard of Tippoo Sahib and beneath the tri-coloured flag entwined, inscribed with the word " Republique " ; sinister a Malay soldier in his uniform Proper supporting a like staff thereon hoisted the flag of the East India Company Argent striped barwise Gules with a canton, over the standard of Tippoo Sahib with the tri-coloured flag entwined beneath as on the dexter inscribed with the word "Franeaise" all Proper. Motto My Prince And My Country. [14]

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References

"No. 30723". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1918. p. 6528.
"Lord Harris profile". CricketArchive. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
"The Cricketer Vol I No 17 1922". magazine.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
"Miscellaneous". Cricketer Magazine. 30 July 1921.
Wisden Cricketer's Almanack, 1933 edition.
Gibson, Alan (1989). The Cricket Captains of England. The Pavilion Library. p. 14. ISBN 1-85145-390-3.
Barclay's World of Cricket, p.170.
"ICC History 1909–1963". ICC. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
"Lord Harris obituary". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. 1933. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum. pp. 115, 128–129, 140–141, 145, 164, 166, 177, 185, 218–220. ISBN 1-85410-710-0.
Guha, Ramachandra (2001). A Corner of a Foreign Field – An Indian History of a British Sport. Picador. pp. 56–75.
"No. 27169". The London Gazette. 27 February 1900. p. 1351.
"No. 27173". The London Gazette. 13 March 1900. p. 1714.
Burke's Peerage. 1949.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by South Norton	Kent County Cricket Club captain 1875–1889	Succeeded by Frank Marchant and William Patterson
Preceded by James Lillywhite	English national cricket captain 1878/79–1880	Succeeded by Alfred Shaw
Preceded by Hon. Ivo Bligh	English national cricket captain 1884	Succeeded by Arthur Shrewsbury
Political offices
Preceded by John Kynaston Cross	Under-Secretary of State for India 1885–1886	Succeeded by Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth, Bt
Preceded by The Lord Sandhurst	Under-Secretary of State for War 1886–1890	Succeeded by The Earl Brownlow
Preceded by The Lord Reay	Governor of Bombay 1890–1895	Succeeded by The Lord Sandhurst
Preceded by The Lord Hawkesbury	Lord-in-waiting 1895–1900	Succeeded by The Lord Kenyon
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by George Harris	Baron Harris 1872–1932	Succeeded by George Harris

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[1] "No. 30723". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1918. p. 6528.

[caprofile-2] "Lord Harris profile". CricketArchive. Retrieved 8 February 2015.

[3] "The Cricketer Vol I No 17 1922". magazine.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 21 March 2020.

[4] "Miscellaneous". Cricketer Magazine. 30 July 1921.

[5] Wisden Cricketer's Almanack, 1933 edition.

[AG14-6] Gibson, Alan (1989). The Cricket Captains of England. The Pavilion Library. p. 14. ISBN 1-85145-390-3.

[7] Barclay's World of Cricket, p.170.

[icchistory-8] "ICC History 1909–1963". ICC. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2015.

[wisobit-9] "Lord Harris obituary". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. 1933. Retrieved 8 February 2015.

[10] Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum. pp. 115, 128–129, 140–141, 145, 164, 166, 177, 185, 218–220. ISBN 1-85410-710-0.

[RG56-11] Guha, Ramachandra (2001). A Corner of a Foreign Field – An Indian History of a British Sport. Picador. pp. 56–75.

[12] "No. 27169". The London Gazette. 27 February 1900. p. 1351.

[13] "No. 27173". The London Gazette. 13 March 1900. p. 1714.

[14] Burke's Peerage. 1949.