Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

12 Barkley and aunt, Kate, and their four offspring were already resident. The census of 1881 recorded three servants and that of 1901 informed that Martha was now residing in the small village of Hedenham, specifically at the Hall, where George, despite serving as a curate in Portsmouth at the time, was still listed with his mother – like many a youngest child he appears to have been close to his mother. There were apparently four servants present at this time but, more intriguingly, Raikes’ future wife Maud nee Cochrane was also listed as a ‘visitor’ (note 7) . It is almost inconceivable that the two of them should be ‘living under the brush’ in Victorian times but they did not ‘tie the knot’ until 9 May 1905, the year in which his calling took Raikes from Hampshire to Nottinghamshire. Like the Raikes family, Maud was also from a sizeable brood, being one of eight siblings but, despite being married for over 50 years, the couple were without issue. George Barkley Raikes’ Schooldays George was enrolled at Shrewsbury School (notes 8, 9) in the summer term of 1888 (note 10) , aged 15, entering the Classical Shell (a form for academic achievers) under the tutelage of Mr Moser; he was a member of the Rev G.T.Hall’s House. He left the school in the summer term of 1892 when he had reached the Classical Lower Sixth, taught by Mr Pickering. During his time at Shrewsbury he was appointed a House Monitor and was sufficiently diligent in his studies to merit being awarded a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, but it was as a sportsman that George Raikes was largely remembered at Shrewsbury. As well as figuring prominently in the Football XI, playing as skipper and goalkeeper, and the Fives Team, which he also The Early Life of George Barkley Raikes; Family and Schooling The hall at Hedenham, where George Raikes’ mother, Martha, eventually settled after the death of her husband.