Horatio Fitzroy, who played once for the South Wales Cricket Club in 1864, was a member of the landed gentry in Hampshire being the only son of Admiral Lord William Fitzroy, and the grandson of the Third Duke of Grafton.
Educated at Cheam School and both Balliol and All Souls Colleges at Oxford, Horatio read Law but never practised as a solicitor having inherited his father’s estate, Frogmore Park, near Yateley where he lived the life of a country gentleman and enjoyed hunting, shooting and playing cricket.
His one appearance, at the age of 41, for the South Wales Cricket Club came at Cirencester Park in 1864 where he scored 11 and 6 against the local club in a game which the Welsh side won by 33 runs. Despite being a JP in Hampshire, he also turned out for Lord Tredegar’s XI in their two-day match against Breconshire at Brecon in July 1872, scoring 2 and 3.
He was also a Major in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry besides having a stint as a Captain in the Glamorgan Militia. Horatio had married the Hon. Getrude Duncombe, the daughter of Baron Faversham in 1849, whilst in 1898 served as Deputy Lieutenant for Hampshire. Horatio was also a life-long friend of the poet Edward Lear.
FITZROY, Francis Horatio
Born – Marylebone, 6 June 1823.
Died – Hartley Wintney, Hants, 20 March 1900.