Arthur Shrewsbury's Suicide — 'Give Me Arthur' Shoots Himself in Gedling, May 1903

Hypochondria — the conviction one is gravely ill in the absence of disease — was little understood in 1903; psychiatric treatment as we know it did not exist. Suicide in late-Victorian England carried legal and religious stigma. Shrewsbury had played his last first-class match in 1902 aged 46; he had no obvious financial troubles and a stable personal life.

The kidney complaint of September 1902 led to a winter of medical consultation and, by spring, settled into the conviction of incurable disease despite reassurances. Friends including Shaw urged him to take a long holiday. He bought the revolver on 12 April, exactly one day after his 47th birthday.

Arthur Shrewsbury was born 11 April 1856 and made his Notts debut in 1875. Through the 1880s and early 1890s he was widely regarded as second only to Grace among English batsmen; Grace himself, when asked for the contemporary he most wanted in his side, replied simply: 'Give me Arthur.' Shrewsbury played 23 Tests for England between 1881 and 1893, scoring 1,277 runs at 35.47 with three hundreds — including 164 at Lord's in 1886, then a record Test score in England.

He also co-organised, with the Nottinghamshire fast bowler Alfred Shaw, four Australian tours between 1881 and 1888 — the Shaw-Shrewsbury tours that sit between the Lillywhite and Stoddart visits in the formal record. Outside the playing field he was a quiet, careful man; he ran a successful sports goods business in Nottingham with Shaw.

In September 1902, while playing club cricket, Shrewsbury complained of kidney pains. Through the winter he visited several specialists, all of whom told him there was no serious illness. By spring 1903 his physical health was improving, but he had become convinced he was terminally ill. On 12 April 1903 he bought a revolver from a Nottingham gunsmith; he returned a week later when he found his bullets did not fit and was sold the correct ones. On the evening of 19 May 1903, at his sister's home in Gedling, he shot himself in the chest. Finding the wound non-fatal, he reloaded and shot himself in the head. His partner Gertrude Scott found him; he died before the doctor arrived.

The news reached the Notts side at Hove the next morning by telegram. The match against Sussex was abandoned as a mark of respect. Wisden in 1904 devoted an extended obituary; the cricket world was unanimous in mourning.

“Give me Arthur.”

“His mind was unhinged by the belief that he had an incurable disease.”

Shaw, devastated, retired from active business. Gertrude Scott was provided for in Shrewsbury's will. The Trent Bridge ground established a Shrewsbury memorial fund for professionals. The case became a touchstone for cricket-and-mental-health discussions in later eras (Aubrey Faulkner 1930, Harold Gimblett 1978).