West Indies Cricket —  An extraordinary man who paved the way.

By Dr. Michael Anthony
There is little that is more odd than the extraordinary. When George Francis Robert – Lord Harris -   was posted here as Governor in 1846 no one in Trinidad guessed he would have anything to do with West Indies cricket. In fact, the game of cricket was in its very infancy at that time, and unknown amongst most Englishmen in Trinidad. In 1850 Governor Harris married Sarah Cummings, daughter of the Archdeacon of Trinity Cathedral and on the 3rd February, 1851 Sarah gave birth to a little boy.

Unfortunately, Sarah did not survive what appear to have been the rigours of childbirth. When Lord Harris had to leave Trinidad after being transferred to Madras in 1854, father and child sailed for India alone.

One good thing was that when Lord Harris came here in 1846 he had met the first of the Indian indentured workers to Trinidad so Indian culture was not totally alien to him. Rather, he had had eight years of trying to settle them, so one can say he was lucky. But he was extremely lucky to escape the disastrous cholera epidemic of 1854 — and this was incredibly so for his baby son!

At the age of 13 the boy was sent to Eton to finish his education and at Eton he was introduced to cricket, the game which was to dominate his life. He was so much in love with the game that one imagines he studied little else. But he also prepared himself to follow in his father’s footsteps — that is, to join the Colonial Service.
This adolescent always talked of having been born in Trinidad, and it was clear this was a great fascination of his life. He was not only intrigued by being a child of this little island in the sun but felt absolutely attached to it as his mother lay buried there. However, his busy life did not allow his visiting this far-away birthplace.


For young Harris, class, society, and nobility merged into the Upper Civil Service of Colonial England. He began his political career by joining the Tories (Conservatives) and found his niche as Under-Secretary of State for India, then as Under-Secretary for War, and eventually Governor of Bombay. He stayed in that office until 1895 at which time he returned to the British Parliament.

 He had also become one of the most outstanding figures in English cricket and at the end of his robust years he played a great part in the administration of the game. Indeed, he was President of the MCC - Marylebone Cricket Club - in 1895.

This cricket career was most surprising, as in his early matches at Eton he was not at all impressive, for his record shows him as making a string of low scores at the outset. But with persistence he had stuck to the game, and no doubt being a son of a noble Baron he was in line for the captaincy of any team to represent England.

In 1878-1879 when the young Harris was 27-28 years of age, he led an English cricket team to tour Australia, only the second-ever English (overseas) captain, as cricket tours had only just begun. He played just one Test match (the second Test match ever played) and he lost that one. He captained England on three other occasions, 1880 at Surrey Oval, when England won by five wickets; 1884 at Lords, when England won by an innings and five runs; and again in 1884, at the Surrey Oval, where the match was drawn.

Harris, who became 4th Baron Harris in 1872 at the death of his father, did not only have a very successful career as a player but he also had a very influential administrative career. One of his decisions had a direct effect on West Indies cricket, as well as on the cricket of two other nations. In 1926 he chaired a meeting of the Imperial Cricket Conference and at that meeting it was agreed to bring in three cricket playing entities, one of which was the West Indies. Thus it was that the West Indies attaining Test Match status in 1926 played its first Test matches against England in 1928.

But long before that, in fact when the second Lord Harris was a relatively young man, he would have had the opportunity to meet his “countryman” the great Lebrun Constantine. For in 1900, the year of the first West Indies cricket tour of England, Lebrun Constantine was there as the leading light. It is not certain whether they met, but it is more than likely. When Lebrun scored his 116 runs at Lords on that tour, Harris would have already been the chief administrator of the MCC. If the two did not meet in 1900, then they would certainly have met in 1924.

In 1924, when the second Lord Harris was 73, he finally visited his native land. The West Indies cricketers had made their third tour of England in 1923 and Harris had welcomed them to his home in recognition of the fact that he had seen the first light of day in the West Indies. On the occasion of that tour he would have met the son of Lebrun - Learie Constantine.

Reflecting on the visit of 1924, the son of one of the best governors Trinidad had ever known declared himself happy to be in Port-of-Spain, and visited the site in the Botanic Gardens where he was born.  He was warmly welcomed by the authorities and a civic reception was held for him at the Town Hall.  It is good to remember this great and gentle personality who sprang from our midst and who played a significant part in the world of cricket and of politics. The second Lord Harris died in 1932 at the age of 81.