Lives in Cricket No 44 - LCH Palairet

Chapter seven Captain of Somerset, and the Earl of Devon In January 1905, Lionel announced that he had been appointed as land agent to KR Miller-Mundy’s estates in Shipley, Derbyshire, and as a result it was unlikely that he could play regularly or possibly ever play for Somerset again. He resigned from his numerous committees in the county. He announced ‘it was business first pleasure second’. For the county this was extremely bad news, as effectively the county had lost three notable amateur batsmen for 1905: JL Daniell was tea planting in India and FA Phillips was in Africa in the Army. There were no players on the horizon that the county thought could be useful. The notice of his intentions to virtually give up the game were reported in Cricket; A Weekly Record of the Game in May. Also that month, it was reported that his brother Richard and father Henry had registered a patent for a turbine; as there is no follow-up to this or mention of it again, I can only assume the invention did not take off, and make them the money they had hoped. Then on June 7, the Lancashire Evening Post reported Lionel’s surprise announcement that he was to return to the south and move to Devon as he had just accepted the post as land agent to the Earl of Devon at Powderham Castle in Exeter; he would take up his post in October. It was also mentioned that it was unlikely he would be able to play much again. The acceptance of the role would mean that Lionel would stay with the Earl of Devon for the rest of his working life. Lionel was employed by the fourteenth Earl of Devon, Charles Pepys Courtenay (1870-1927). The earl and Lionel will have known each other, as the earl was a keen Somerset supporter and one of the guarantors who helped make good the annual losses the club generally made. The earl’s residence was Powderham Castle, a fortified manor house in the parish of Exminster, about six miles to the south of the county town, Exeter. To the north-east of the castle the main gates lead to the village of Kenton. An earl is still in residence, and the eighteenth Earl has only passed away in 2015. Lionel and his family would live in a big house that he would call ‘Kenton 94