Greatest Cricket Moments

Queen Victoria's Accession and the MCC's Loyal Address — June 1837

1837-06-26n/aMCC loyal address to the new Queen, June 18371 min readSeverity: Mild

Summary

On 20 June 1837 William IV died and Princess Victoria, eighteen, became Queen. Within a week the MCC committee — chaired by William Ward — voted a formal loyal address to the new monarch and dispatched it to St James's Palace. The address, courteously acknowledged from the Queen's secretary, was one of dozens received from sporting and civic bodies but is the formal opening of MCC's relationship with the Victorian monarchy.

What Happened

MCC had received occasional royal attention during the Regency — the Prince of Wales had attended Brighton matches in 1801 — but had no formal connection to the crown. Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837 prompted a wave of loyal addresses from sporting clubs. MCC's, voted on 26 June, was drafted by Ward in formal terms expressing the club's loyalty and offering the use of Lord's for any royal cricket function. The Queen's reply was perfunctory; she never visited Lord's. But the formal channel of communication was established.

Timeline

20 Jun 1837

Victoria becomes Queen

26 Jun 1837

MCC committee votes loyal address

1851

Prince Albert attends a Lord's match — first royal visit since the Regency

⚖️ The Verdict

The formal opening of MCC's relationship with the Victorian monarchy.

Tags

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#queen-victoria#mcc#royal-patronage#1837#iconic-moment

Related Incidents

⭐Mild

Middlesex County Cricket Club Founded — Cricket Comes Home to Lord's, 1864

Middlesex cricket establishment

1864-02-02

Middlesex County Cricket Club was founded on 2 February 1864 at a meeting in London, the same year in which the MCC legalised overarm bowling and John Wisden published his first Almanack. It was one of several county clubs formally constituted in the busy years of 1863–65 as English cricket reorganised itself around a county structure that would eventually evolve into a formal championship.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s
⭐Mild

Lancashire County Cricket Club Founded — Manchester's Game Gets Organised, 1864

Lancashire cricket establishment

1864-01-12

Lancashire County Cricket Club was formally constituted at a meeting in Manchester on 12 January 1864, giving England's most cricket-passionate industrial county a formal organisational structure to match the grassroots enthusiasm that had been filling grounds at Old Trafford and elsewhere for decades. Lancashire, alongside Yorkshire, represented the great northern cricket public that William Clarke's All-England Eleven had first mobilised commercially in the 1840s.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s
⭐Mild

V.E. Walker Takes All Ten — Every Wicket at Lord's, Middlesex v Lancashire, 1865

Middlesex vs Lancashire

1865-07-26

Vyell Edward Walker of Middlesex took all ten wickets in a Lancashire innings at Lord's on 26 July 1865 — one of the earliest documented instances of a bowler taking all ten in a first-class match. Walker, a medium-pace round-arm bowler who also captained Middlesex, achieved the feat without assistance from any other bowler, delivering one of the most complete individual bowling performances of the Victorian era.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s