Frederick Greenfield

Frederick Greenfield
The Rev. F. J. Greenfield
Personal information
Full name
Frederick Francis John Greenfield
Born(1850-05-10)10 May 1850
Gorakhpur, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died(1900-10-25)25 October 1900
Dundee, Colony of Natal
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm slow roundarm
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1873–1876Cambridge University
1873–1883Sussex
1874–1883MCC
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 85
Runs scored 2,549
Batting average 16.76
100s/50s 2/9
Top score 126
Balls bowled 4,699
Wickets 111
Bowling average 17.99
5 wickets in innings 4
10 wickets in match 1
Best bowling 7/26
Catches/stumpings 81/–
Source: CricketArchive, 1 June 2012

Frederick Francis John Greenfield (10 May 1850 – 25 October 1900) was an English cricketer and Anglican priest. He captained Cambridge University in 1876 and Sussex in 1876–78 and 1881–82, and played 85 first-class matches. After serving as a chaplain in England, he migrated to South Africa, where he was taken as a prisoner during the Second Boer War and died in 1900.

Early life and education

Greenfield was born in Gorakhpur, Bengal Presidency, to Rev. John Greenfield. He was educated at Hurstpierpoint, where in May 1871 he scored 216 not out against Bolney. He continued at the school as an assistant master until going to Cambridge in 1873. He was admitted to Peterhouse, Cambridge, in April 1873, later migrated to Gonville and Caius College and graduated BA in 1877.

Cricket career

Greenfield played first-class cricket for Cambridge University from 1873 to 1876, won his Blue in 1874, 1875 and 1876, and captained the team in 1876. He played for Sussex from 1873 to 1883 and made 62 first-class appearances for the county. He was twice the captain for Sussex in the periods 1876 to 1878 and 1881 to 1882. He was also a member of the Sussex committee from 1881 to 1890. The cricket writer W. A. Bettesworth thought that Greenfield had built a strong reputation as Cambridge captain, but was not a natural leader for Sussex. Overall, he appeared in 85 first-class matches from 1873 to 1884, also playing for the Marylebone Cricket Club. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm slow roundarm bowler who also bowled lobs. He scored 2,549 runs at an average of 16.76, with two centuries and a highest score of 126, and took 111 wickets with a best performance of seven for 26.

Clerical career

Greenfield taught at Framlingham as an assistant master in 1876–77. He was ordained as a deacon of the Church of England in 1877 and priest in 1879 by the Bishop of Norwich. He served as curate of Bruisyard, Suffolk, from 1877 to 1881, of Saxtead, Suffolk, from 1881 to 1883, and of Milton-next-Gravesend, Kent, from 1883 to 1884. At the time of the 1881 census he was the second master at the Albert Middle Class College, Framlingham. He was then chaplain of the Poor Law Union in the district of Cuckfield, Sussex, from 1884 to 1891, and also of the Sussex County Lunatic Asylum from 1885 to 1890.

South Africa and death

Greenfield then moved to South Africa and served in the Cape Mounted Police, and was headmaster of a school near Dundee, Natal, from 1896 until 1900. During the Second Boer War, he was taken prisoner by the Boers, who ill-treated him and robbed him of all his possessions. He travelled to England to seek redress, then returned to South Africa, where he died of pleurisy at Dundee on 25 October 1900.

Notes

  1. ↑ Different sources provide different dates of birth. CricketArchive: 10 May 1850; Boase's Modern English Biography: 1 May 1850; Walker's Admissions to Peterhouse: 10 May 1848.
  2. ↑ Walker records his name as "Francis Frederic John Greenfield", and the Hurstpierpoint College register as "Frederick John".
  3. ↑ Boase gives the year of his BA as 1876.
  4. ↑ Walker gives his Saxtead curacy as 1881–84.
  5. ↑ Sources differ on the dates: Boase gives 1884–90 for both chaplaincies, Ambrose 1884–90 for the asylum, and Walker 1885–91 for the asylum.
  6. ↑ Ambrose gives the unit as the Cape Mounted Rifles.
  7. ↑ Bettesworth said the death was due to injuries received at the hands of the Boers.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Frederick Greenfield". CricketArchive. Archived from the original on 1 June 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Boase, Frederic (1912). Modern English Biography. Vol. 5. Truro: Netherton and Worth. cols. 495–496 – via HathiTrust.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Walker, Thomas Alfred (1912). Admissions to Peterhouse or S. Peter's College in the University of Cambridge: A Biographical Register. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 541 – via HathiTrust.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Greenfield, Frederick Francis John (GRNT873FF)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Ambrose, Don (2003). "Brief profile of F. F. J. Greenfield". CricketArchive. Archived from the original on 16 October 2004. Retrieved 8 October 2026.
  6. ↑ "Past CUCC captains". Cambridge University Cricket Club. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bettesworth, W. A. (31 January 1901). "Personal reminiscences of the Rev. F. J. Greenfield". Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game. Vol. 20, no. 560. pp. 1–2 – via Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians.