Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

Chapter One Early Life in Norfolk, and Harrow Michael Falcon, the famous Norfolk cricketer, was born on 21 July 1888, at Horstead House, in the village of Horstead, now not far from Norwich Airport, on the northern edge of the city. 2 His father was also named Michael Falcon and was in turn the son of another Michael Falcon. The grandfather lived in Stainburn, near Workington in Cumberland, where he was a magistrate: his son was born on 28 June 1859. The son’s wife was Isabella Mordy, 3 daughter of William Mordy of Workington: they married on 13 April 1886 and had four children – Isabella, Michael, William and Joseph Henry (commonly known as Harry). The father, who from now on will be referred to as Michael Falcon senior, was educated at Repton School, but did not go to university. Instead he studied at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. Moving to Norfolk, Michael Falcon senior put his training to good use by becoming a land agent. He soon had a flourishing practice, being appointed to manage some of the largest estates in Norfolk, such as Blickling Hall which he ran from 1890 to 1920. He founded the firm of Falcon and Birkbeck with Christopher Birkbeck (originally from Ripon), based at Horstead House, where he had settled in 1881, renting the property from Vice-Admiral John Corbett (later Admiral Sir John). Made a Fellow of the Institution of Surveyors, Michael Falcon senior became involved with the Norwich Union Building Society in due course. He was elected a director of the NU Life Insurance Society in 1906, later visiting 10 2 The 1891 Census records a household of eleven at Horstead House, including six live-in servants. The building is described these days by English Heritage as ‘a former manor house, dating from 1620, with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century alterations and additions’. It is now owned by Matthew Fleming, who played for Kent from 1988 to 2002 and for England in eleven limited-overs internationals in 1997 and 1998. Falcon’s birthplace is sometimes erroneously given as Sprowston Hall, a residence acquired by his father in 1925. 3 Both Falcon and Mordy are, if not common names in Cumberland, then at least relatively more frequent there than anywhere else in Great Britain. Falcon originated as a nickname referring to the bird and its characteristics. Hawke is similarly said to be a nickname indicating ‘a person of savage or cruel disposition’. Falcon and Lord Hawke are the longest-serving captains in, respectively, Minor Counties and first-class county cricket.