Kingsmill Key

Sir Kingsmill James Key, 4th Baronet (11 October 1864 – 9 August 1932) was an English cricketer.

Life and career

Key was born in Streatham Common, London. He was educated at Clifton College^[1] and Oriel College, Oxford.^[2] In the course of a long career he played for, among others, Surrey County Cricket Club (whom he captained for several years in the 1890s), Oxford University, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the Gentlemen. His highest score of 281, for Oxford against Middlesex at Chiswick Park in 1887, remained the highest first-class score for the university until 2013.^[3]

Key married Helen Abercrombie in Baguley, Cheshire, in 1888.^[4] They lived in London, where Key was a stockbroker, a member of the London Stock Exchange.^[5] He died at the age of 67 in Wittersham, Kent, having contracted blood poisoning after an insect bite.^[6] His cousin, Leslie Gay, played one Test match for England. Leslie's sister, Charlotte Evelyn Gay, was an English social and temperance reformer affiliated with the Church Army.^[7]

^ "Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p53: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948
^ KEY, Sir Kingsmill James, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)
^ "Most Runs in an Innings for Oxford University". CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
^ "Manchester, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1930". Ancestry.com.au. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
^ "1911 England Census: Kensington South". Ancestry.com.au. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
^ Obituary. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1933
^ Cherrington, Ernest Hurst (1925). "GAY, CHARLOTTE EVELYN". Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem. Vol. 3. Westerville, Ohio : American Issue Publishing House. p. 1075. Retrieved 1 January 2023 – via Internet Archive. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.