Frederic Meyrick-Jones


The Reverend Frederic Meyrick Meyrick-Jones, born Frederic Meyrick Jones, was an English clergyman, school teacher and cricketer who played in 18 first-class cricket matches between 1887 and 1896 as a wicket-keeper.
Meyrick-Jones was born at Blackheath in what was then part of Kent in 1867, the son of the Reverend George Meyrick-Jones. He was educated at Marlborough College where he played cricket for the school team as a "hard-hitting batsman" before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge. He played occasionally for the Gentlemen of Hampshire team and for Hampshire County Cricket Club between 1886 and 1890 at a time whilst the county was not considered first-class, and made his first-class debut for Cambridge University in 1887. He played against the touring Australians in 1888 and won a Blue the same year. As well as cricket, Meyrick-Jones played racquets at school and university, winning the Challenge Cup in 1888.
After graduating, Meyrick-Jones was ordained and became a curate and a preparatory school master at Elstree School where has was also curate until 1896 when he moved to St Agnes Church in Bristol, changing his surname from Jones to Meyrick-Jones in 1893. He played occasional first-class matches for Kent County Cricket Club during this period, making a total of six appearances for the county between 1893 and 1896. In 1899 he became the manager of the Rugby School Mission, a religious mission in the deprived neighbourhood of Notting Dale in North Kensington, West London, aimed at improving conditions for the population of the area. He served there until 1905, promoting rugby union in the area, afterwards moving to Holt in Norfolk where he ran a private school, based from 1909 to 1915 at Voewood just outside the town. He made a single appearance for Norfolk County Cricket Club in the Minor Counties Championship in 1909.
Meyrick-Jones died at Shaftesbury in Dorset in 1950 aged 83. His Wisden obituary noted that he had been "an antiquarian of some note".