Henry Murray-Anderdon

Who is Henry Murray-Anderdon?

Henry Edward Murray-Anderdon was a cricket administrator who served as the secretary and guiding spirit in the early days of Somerset County Cricket Club and later as the club president.

Murray-Anderdon became honorary secretary of Somerset after the club had fallen out of first-class cricket in 1885; in five years, he had established it on a sounder financial footing, recruited illustrious players such as Sammy Woods, overseen the leasing of the current County Ground at Taunton, and, in 1891, seen the team restored to first-class status in the newly organised County Championship. He remained as honorary secretary until 1910 and then became Life President from 1915 until his death.

Murray-Anderdon was the son of the rector of Chislehurst, Kent, the Rev Francis Murray, and his wife Fanny, who was a Miss Anderdon. He was educated at Marlborough College where he did not make the cricket team. He inherited a large house at Henlade, near Taunton, from an uncle in 1873 and, changing his surname to Murray-Anderdon, thereafter lived the life of a country gentleman and man of activities. "He had a commanding, aristocratic manner," says one history of Somerset cricket.