Lancashire player number 6 - Whittaker, Edwin by Don Ambrose

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Player:

E Whittaker

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Lancashire 1865-68
Born 4.12.1834 Ashton-under-Lyne.
Died 25.6.1880 Rock Vale House, Matlock, Derbyshire.

 

Educated at the Wesley College, Sheffield. A keen cricket player and a member of the Manchester Club. He was a founder member of the Ashton-under-Lyne Club, and on 13 June 1857 took part in their first match at Droylesden. The Ashton club could boast as members, during the next few years, the Rowley brothers, S.W.Swire and Edwin Whittaker, who were all to hold high office at the Lancashire County Cricket Club.

 

In 1859 George Parr's England Eleven on return from their tour of North America played Another England Eleven at the Old Trafford ground. There was a good attendance, but as there was only a flimsy wire fence around the ground most saw the match without paying.

 

Within the next two weeks the ground was properly fenced and totally enclosed at the sole expense of Edwin Whittaker.

 

5ft.7 inches tall and weighing between 10 and 11 stone, he was a stylish middle order right-hand batsman who occasionally kept wicket.

 

In May 1863 the Manchester Club got up a match between the North and the South at Old Trafford. Whittaker was selected for the North and scored 20 in his only innings.

 

At the meeting at the Queen's Hotel, Manchester, in January 1864, Whittaker represented the Ashton-under-Lyne Club and the formation of the Lancashire County Cricket Club was agreed.

 

On 20th to 22nd July 1865 he played in the initial first-class match played by the Lancashire Club, against Middlesex at Old Trafford, when he scored 23 and 39. He also played in the return fixture at the Islington ground, when he scored 5 and 19 not out.

 

On 9th to 11th July 1867 he made his highest recorded score, 146 not out, for the Gentlemen of Lancashire against the Gentlemen of Yorkshire at Old Trafford.

 

He was for many years President of the Ashton-under-Lyne Club and in 1863 and 1864 was Vice-President of the Manchester Club.

 

By 1875 he was reported to be living at Menai Bridge, Anglesea, North Wales.

 

In the 1881 Census his widow, Mrs Mary A. Whittaker, aged 36, born at Menai, Anglesey, is living at Matlock with their daughters Ellen S. aged 20, Hannah B. aged 16 and Jane A aged 3, and sons Robert P. aged 8 and George F. aged 5. There are three domestic servants and a visitor William B. Brown, a Wesleyan Minister. There are five teenaged girls, all drapers assistants also staying so presumably Mrs. Whittaker had a drapers shop.

 

(Article: Copyright © 2004 Don Ambrose)