Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

96 The Twilight’s Last Gleaming described in the transcript as Mr Patterson’s ‘niece’ , but as he is aged only 24 and was born in Carlisle, Mrs Patterson 26 and born in Cornwall, the relationship appears an unlikely one and a more likely explanation is that the word is a mistranscription of ‘nurse’. It is unlikely that she and Tom would have been divorced. There were well under a thousand divorces per annum in the whole country, compared with over one hundred thousand now, it was many years before the ethos of ‘no fault’ and Tom may have been a Roman Catholic. Within a few years his funeral cortège would leave from Richmond’s Roman Catholic church, though the marriage had been in Beddington Parish Church. The change in Tom’s personal circumstances caused him to draw up a will. Richardson’s marriage to Edith came to an end some time between the birth of his youngest child, Edith Norah, in the summer of 1902, and his return from Bath to Richmond in 1907. In his last will and testament drawn up on 6 July the following year, he bequeathed his piano, music stool and accessories to Kathleen May, watch and chain, personal jewellery, cricket balls and mementoes to Tom William Gresham as heirlooms, 229 his silver coffee service to Edith Norah ‘and all my furniture linen and household effects to Emily Birch in order that she may provide my infant children with a home’. She was also bequeathed one-quarter of the residual estate (the other three-quarters to be held in equal shares for the children until they reached their majority) and appointed guardian of the children. His estranged wife, Edith, features nowhere in the document. Emily Birch who was three years younger than Tom, had in her teens been in service 229 They did not all remain in the family. David Frith mentions in his autobiography that he bought from Tom’s son the mounted cricket balls from the 10-45 against Essex in 1894 and 8-94 at Sydney in 1897/98 ( Caught England, Bowled Australia p 257) Richardson’s handwriting on his 1911 Census entry for the Prince’s Head, Richmond Green showing his family, ‘housekeeper’ and domestic staff.