| Player: | E Roper |
ROPER, Edward.
Amateur.
Born at Richmond, Yorkshire, 8th April 1851.
Died at Toxteth, Liverpool, Lancashire, 27th April 1921.
The son of R.S.D.R. Roper, of Richmond, Yorkshire, a banker, he was educated at Clifton College, where he was a member of the cricket eleven. He played his cricket with the Richmond, York and Yorkshire Gentlemen Clubs, but it was only after he moved to Liverpool and had established himself as the secretary and captain of the Sefton Club that he was to make his first-class debut, for Lancashire in 1876. Between then and 1893 he played in 36 first-class matches, 28 for Lancashire and 5 for Yorkshire. In 1893 he left Sefton to become the secretary of the Liverpool Cricket Club, a position he held until 1920. He first came to Liverpool when he went into a shipping business, which proved unsuccessful, but became so deeply involved in Liverpool society that he never left.
At the time of the 1881 Census he was lodging at 34 Bloomsbury Street, Bloomsbury, London, aged 29, a shipowner, with his wife Eleanor, aged 30, born Liverpool. There are three other lodgers, two of them widows and both annuitants, and the third a 25 year old solicitor. There is one art student who is a boarder. There are two domestic servants.
(Article: Copyright © 2003 Don Ambrose)