Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

scarcely have helped the financial situation when Eliza Anna (Annie) came along as an early Christmas present on December 3, 1882. Mercy’s early childhood was disrupted by the tragic death of her father, when she was still only seven, from congestive cardiac failure. Soon after, her mother met Harrogate man Richard Burgess at Ripon Races and a second marriage, and second family, ensued. The introduction of the Burgesses to the family established yet another cricketing connection. Mercy’s new stepfather was the younger brother of Tom Burgess who played for Harrogate as an amateur from 1883 to 1885, a match professional in 1886 and 1887, and, having spent four years at Batley, he returned to St George’s Road as a professional in 1892. Tom, like Ted Leyland after him, was engaged as a groundsman and professional and held that post until 1897 but it was 1895 when he enjoyed his most memorable summer. That year he not only hit 101 not out in a friendly with his former club Batley; he also joined the ranks of first-class cricketers when he turned out in an emergency for Yorkshire. Apart from getting used to her new uncles and aunts, and her new father, the youngster was left with another huge adjustment to make when the family left their Ripon home and moved to Bilton, on the outskirts of Harrogate, where three new sisters Ena, Sarah (Sally), and Lily, and only brother Dick, were all born between 1887 and 1890. Mercy Kirkbright, the daughter of Annie Lambert, recalls her grandmother being overjoyed at the birth of a son, at last. “She insisted she would carry on having children until she had a boy - but she was already nearly 40,” she explained. Mercy, named after Maurice’s mother, always had a great pride in the cricketing achievements of her older cousin but regrets that she only ever saw him when he was playing cricket and that they never really met. “We may have come across each other when I was very young but there was a big rift in the family as far as my mother was concerned so we didn’t see too much of them,” she recalled. “Aunt Mercy, Della and Polly were all very close but they fell out with my mum when she met my dad. My mum, who was a dancer at one time, had a steady job working as a chamber maid Mum’s the word 50