Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

94 an end to the previous system wherein each side supplied its own umpire, a potential source of bias. Kent nominated Edgar and he was duly appointed to the first-ever county umpires list along with fifteen others for the 1883 season. A total of 62 county matches were played that year but he stood in only two, both at Hove towards the season’s end, so it was hardly a remunerative activity. He remained on the list for two more seasons, officiating in six county games in 1884 and nine in 1885. He evidently stood in minor matches too, perhaps helped by Wisden listing him in its section ‘Umpires and where to find them’. He also continued to play for a diverse mix of teams in non first- class cricket, and he may have received some form of recompense for these appearances. Among the latter was a match, recorded in the Essex Standard of 31 July 1880, in which Willsher captained an ‘Eleven of England’ against twenty-two of Chelmsford. He proved that he still retained some of his old powers by taking nine wickets in Chelmsford’s first innings, but the paper reported that the match ‘did not prove a success financially’, presumably because the ‘England’ eleven was anything but representative. His final match as a player appears to have been for ‘Twenty Colts of the County and a Captain’ against an eleven of Kent, as reported by the Northern Echo on 11 May 1885. Whether or not he was the captain mentioned, we are not told, but we do know that Willsher, batting at No.19, scored a duck, and took one wicket, that of George Hearne, as Kent completed an easy victory. Fittingly, Hearne was also a left-arm bowler, and was to go on to take 570 wickets for his county. This was not quite Edgar’s last appearance on a cricket field, as from 10 to 12 August he was at Derby umpiring, with the Lancastrian ‘Kerr’ Coward, an undistinguished draw between the home county and Yorkshire. Less than two months later, he was dead. Edgar Willsher passed away at his final residence of 18 Lethbridge Road, Lewisham, on 7 October 1885, surrounded by his family. He was not quite 57. His death certificate says that he died of ‘exhaustion and carcinoma hepatis’, or liver cancer in today’s terminology. As the South Eastern Gazette recorded, his demise had appeared inevitable for several months: … it had been evident that his health was failing and though he had been able to officiate as umpire in the earlier fixtures of the year, he was compelled to refuse several later engagements, and since August had been confined to his bed without the slightest hope of recovery. Epitaph