IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): RAFG
Held at: Marylebone Cricket Club Library
Title: R A Fitzgerald Scrapbooks
Date(s): 1861-1979
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 4 volumes
Name of creator(s): Fitzgerald | Robert Allan | b 1834 | cricketer
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Robert Allan Fitzgerald was born in Purley House, Berkshire on 1 October 1834. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge.
A right-handed batsman and round arm right-arm fast bowler, Fitzgerald participated in 46 first-class matches between 1854 and 1874, scoring over 1,000 runs. He later became Secretary of MCC from 1863 to 1876, during which time MCC purchased the freehold of the ground from Isaac Moses Marsden thanks to money advanced from William Nicholson, built the ground's first Grand Stand, and in 1872 Fitzgerald led a team of cricketers including Lord Harris and W G Grace on a tour of North America.
This tour is documented at length in one of the scrapbooks in this collection. Fitzgerald was also a keen amateur dramatist and plays written by him are included in one of the other scrapbooks, alongside accounts of MCC, I Zingari and Quidnunc matches, as well as newspaper articles on cricket and lawn tennis.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Four scrapbooks: one entitled 'Quidnunc Cricket Club 1861', one entitled 'R A F G', one is blank. Scrapbooks including correspondence, fixture cards, advertisements, newspaper cuttings, menu cards, invoices, telegrams, rules of the Massachusetts Association of Cricket Clubs. Includes accounts of R A Fitzgerald's tour to North America in 1972, matches played by MCC, I Zingari and Quidnunc Cricket Club, photographs of gentleman playing croquet, articles on lawn tennis, pictures of Germany, drinking songs, plays written by Fitzgerald, rules of the Massachusetts Association of Cricket Clubs.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material:
English
System of arrangement:
The volumes are arranged by date.
Conditions governing access:
Open
Conditions governing reproduction:
Reproduction is not permitted.
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Donated to MCC by T G Fitzgerald.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
Fitzgerald, R. A., Wickets in the west, or, the twelve in America, Tinsley, 1873
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: December 2014