Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

5 Introduction It is difficult for outsiders to understand the emotional attachment that members of a family can have to a business established four or five generations earlier. It is more than just feeling responsible for preserving the business in a competitive market, but ensuring that the legacy handed down by grandparents and great-grandparents remains untarnished. And when this concerns a business involved in the creation of a product or products where quality must always be maintained to retain the continued support of customers, the family name and product are seen as one and the same, and judged accordingly. Such has been the case with names like Sainsbury, Guinness, Cadbury, Rowntree, Warburton, and Shepherd Neame, the brewers formed by two families at Faversham in Kent in 1698. The families of Mann, Crossman and Paulin did not join forces quite as early as 1698 but came together in 1846 at the Albion Brewery at Whitechapel in East London, where James Mann had taken sole possession twenty years before. His third son, Thomas, after joining the company’s board of directors, moved to an estate in Middlesex and built his own cricket ground for the Winchmore Hill Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club in 1871, and his son, Edward, played an active role in the development of the less exclusive Winchmore Hill Village Cricket Club. His son, Edward John, showed he was a talented young cricketer while at Cambridge and was good enough to play twice for the Middlesex Second XI. When members of such a family are seen to have talent in a sporting activity, such as cricket, their opportunities to develop that talent are limited by the time available after satisfying their responsibilities within the family business. And for an eldest son like Edward John there was no doubt that his future lay working full-time at the brewery. This was fortunate for Frank Mann who was five years younger, and still at university, when his eldest brother was appointed to the board of directors. 1 As a young man Frank Mann was active in many sports but as an outstanding cricketer he caught the eye of Plum Warner and was soon playing for Middlesex. He was still expected to earn his living working in the brewery and after leaving Cambridge began an apprenticeship with a brewer in Kent. His achievements on the cricket field for the next twenty years were celebrated by his proud family who made allowances for his absence from work throughout the summer months, but they knew that eventually his playing days would be over and he too would take his place as a director. It did not work out so neatly for his eldest son, George, 1 That there is, in some countries, a close relationship between brewing and cricket will not have escaped readers’ attention. Indeed an earlier subject in this series, Michael Falcon, chaired the board of directors of E.Lacon and Co, of Great Yarmouth, for a good few years. An appendix to this book lists Championship cricketers who have run breweries.