Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

31 supplemented by payments for two weeks’ work in October, and travel expenses to and from his home in Maidstone and ‘to the moors and back’. Perhaps the latter refers to a day out on his Lordship’s extensive grouse moors, something definitely not available to his AEE team-mates. He had been slightly busier in 1857, playing five matches at Enville Hall, and he was not entirely precluded from county cricket, joining Kent for all five of its fixtures. However, apart from his one game at Enville Hall against a twenty-two of Dudley, the month of August 1858 was devoid of cricket for Edgar, and he would have been especially keen to get back to Maidstone for a few days, especially if Stamford was paying, for he was now a married man. The wedding took place on 24 February 1858 at St Saviour’s Church in Southwark, consecrated as the cathedral in 1905, but having no obvious connection with either Edgar or his bride. Sarah Johnston was born at sea in 1826, the daughter of a quartermaster serving with an infantry regiment, the 67th South Hampshires. The Army Lists show John Johnston to have been receiving a daily subsistence of 4s 9d in 1823. ‘The Tigers’, as they became known, had been stationed in India since 1805 when George IV recalled them to England in 1826; hence Sarah’s birth on board ship. The census of 1841 shows her living in Rolvenden and therefore presumably known to Edgar, but unfortunately she seems to leave no trace in the 1851 census. Quite apart from the marriage certificate claiming their residence as High Street, Southwark, further mystery is added by Edgar’s profession being declared as ‘victualler’. The solution may perhaps be found in the fact that Edgar’s cousin Robert Willsher was the landlord of the Queen’s Head in Borough at this time, 9 and it is therefore quite likely that Edgar and Sarah were helping out there in the winter of 1857/58. Whatever the reality of the situation, the birth of their first child, John Edgar, in April 1859, sees them happily ensconced back in Maidstone, and Edgar rightfully restored to the status of ‘cricketer’. The other momentous event in Willsher’s life in 1859 took place at the Mitre Hotel in Maidstone on 1 March. Since 1841, the Beverley Club’s ground had been the main centre for Kent cricket, especially after the founding of Canterbury Week in 1842. The problem was that the man in charge of the Week from 1849, William de Chair Baker, was seen as only being interested in the Kent County Club when it came to Canterbury, and therefore it was suffering 9 As recorded in the 1861 census. At Enville Hall