C. B. Fry

Cricket

Oxford University

After matriculating to Oxford, he played for a sixteen-man freshman team against Oxford University Cricket Club, scoring 92 runs. He followed up in his next match by scoring 66 of his teams 79 runs and taking six wickets. In his freshman year, he made his debut in first-class cricket for Oxford University Cricket Club against the Gentlemen of England at the University Parks in Oxford. He made nine first-class appearances for Oxford in 1892, meeting with modest success. Against Somerset at Oxford, Fry recorded his first century (110 runs) in first-class cricket, an innings that assisted Oxford to victory by 7 wickets. By playing in the 1892 University Match at Lord's, he gained his first blue. Oxford endured a tough season, failing win any of their matches, though Fry was considered one of the teams better players. The following season, he made eleven appearances in first-class cricket, scoring 398 runs, though his highest score was 59 runs. In 1893, he debuted for both the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the Gentlemen in the Gentlemen versus Players fixture. Ahead of the 1894 season, Fry was elected captain of the cricket club, succeeding Lionel Palairet. He captained Oxford to victory in the 1893 University Match, scoring an unbeaten century in Oxford's first innings. Despite his century, he drew criticism for his slow scoring rate early in his innings. His captaincy in the match drew praise from the Illustrated Sporting and…

Teaching

In 1896 Fry took up a teaching position at Charterhouse. Two years later in 1898 he left the profession, moving on to a successful and much more lucrative and less time-consuming career in journalism. He later recalled: "I could earn by journalism three times the income for the expenditure of a tenth of the time." In December 1908 he became the Captain Superintendent of the Training Ship Mercury, a nautical school primarily designed to prepare boys for service in the Royal Navy; this was run by his wife Beatrice from 1885 to 1946, she having founded the school with her lover (and father of her illegitimate children), the rich banker Charles Hoare. She subjected the boys, 'hounded from morn to night', to 'barbarities' including ceremonial floggings of extreme violence and forced boxing matches inflicted as punishment. Fry held this position until he resigned to make way for a younger man in 1950. Eventually he was given the rank of captain in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR). Alan Gibson wrote: "He ... would stride about in his uniform looking, as I think it was Robertson-Glasgow who said, every inch like six admirals." Interviewed about the Mercury, and his role in its development, he was addressed as 'Commander C. B. Fry'.

Politics

As far back as his time at Wadham College, Fry had been interested in politics, but admitted: "I take a great interest in heaps of things that I know nothing about ... politics for one". In 1920 when his friend and former…

Early life

Charles Burgess Fry was born at 144 St James's Road in Croydon on 25 April 1872, the son of a civil servant, Lewis John Fry, and his wife, Constance Isabella White. Both sides of his family had once been wealthy, but by 1872 were not as prosperous. At a young age, the family moved from Croydon to Chislehurst in neighbouring Kent. It was here, in the family home that overlooked a cricket ground, where Fry began his fascination with cricket. Fry began his education at Hove Lodge school, before being moved from there to Hornbrook House school, where his struggles with mathematics led to tensions with the headmaster and his wife. His treatment at the school caused great psychological trauma, leaving him feeling unfufilled. He returned to Holmbrook for a third year, finding that the headmaster and his wife had departed, with their reforms in the school having a positive effect on Fry's mental wellbeing, with Fry later remarking that it felt like he had entered "another and better world". Amongst the improvements at the school was a greater focus on cricket, allowing Fry to hone his early skills. He also demonstrated his athletic and footballing prowess whilst at the school. Academically, a switch in the curriculum toward the classics saw Fry rise toward the top of his class.

Repton School

The family again relocated, this time to Streatham on account of his father's ill-health. It was the intention of his parents for Fry to progress to Aldenham…

In the 1920s, Fry's mental health started to deteriorate severely. He had encountered mental health problems earlier in his life, experiencing a breakdown during his final year at Oxford, which meant that, although academically brilliant, he achieved a poor degree. In the late 1920s, he had a major breakdown and became deeply paranoid. He reached breaking point in 1928 during a visit to India, becoming convinced that an Indian had cast a spell on him. For the rest of his life, he dressed in bizarrely unconventional clothes. He recovered enough to become a popular writer on cricket and other sports, and even into his sixties he entertained hopes of becoming a Hollywood star. At one point when he was staying in Brighton he was supposed to have gone for a walk along the beach early in the morning and suddenly shed all his clothes, trotting around stark naked. In 1934, as reported in his 1939 autobiography, Life Worth Living, he visited Germany with the idea of forging stronger links between the uniformed British youth organisations, such as the Boy Scouts, and the Hitler Youth, so that both groups could learn from each other. Fry met Adolf Hitler who greeted him with a Nazi salute which he returned with a Nazi salute of his own. He failed to persuade von Ribbentrop that Nazi Germany should take up cricket to Test level. Some members of the Hitler Youth were welcomed at TS Mercury, and Fry was still enthusiastic about them in 1938, just prior to the outbreak of war. Fry's…