Jack Usher (Image: Headingley Ghosts (2013) by Mick Pope)
Given the enormous number of Test players who have appeared in the Lancashire League over the last hundred years, it is not surprising that some very famous names hold various Lancashire League records: for example Learie Constantine, Everton Weekes, Johnny Wardle, Vinoo Mankad, Bobby Simpson and Saeed Anwar feature high in lists of leading run-scorers or wicket-takers. But one long-standing record is held by a far more obscure cricketer. No-one has ever beaten the 150 wickets taken in a single season by a man called John Usher for Haslingden Cricket Club in 1900. A left-arm spinner who delivered the ball at an unusually slow pace, Usher was a dominant figure in the Lancashire League; between 1892 and 1902 he took 711 wickets (at an average of 9.06, which compares favourable to Sydney Barnes’ League average of 8.91), which even after so long places him in the top forty leading wicket-takers. He played one first-class match, for Yorkshire in 1888, and was around the fringes of the county team for a time but never quite made it at the top level. Instead, he was content to travel around the north as an itinerant professional in many leagues, including the Lancashire League. However, his career ended in controversy. In 1900 he was fined when he attempted to bribe an opposition player to throw an important match, and two years later he was released by Haslingden in slightly mysterious circumstances amid rumours that he was not averse to betting against his own team. When he discovered that he had been informally banned by the Lancashire League, he took legal action which ultimately ended in tragedy.
Usher’s story began a long way from the Lancashire League, and his route into professional cricket was slightly unusual. John Usher — known to his friends as Jack — was born on 26 February 1859 in Templemore, County Tipperary, Ireland, and baptised as a Roman Catholic around a week later. His parents were John Usher (who later records indicate was an either a tailor or a shoemaker) and Honora Ryan. Little else is known of his background, but it was never generally known that he was Irish. Instead, he was associated with Hightown, a village between Huddersfield and Leeds in what is today West Yorkshire, where he lived until the mid-1880s. The 1871 census recorded the 12-year-old Usher as an “apprentice” lodging in Hightown with the family of a coal miner (It also gave an inaccurate birthplace of Hightown; in all subsequent censuses, Usher listed his birthplace as Templemore). There is no trace of his family, which raises the unanswerable question of how he came to be in a small Yorkshire village by himself at such a young age. But it meant that his cricketing associates assumed — or perhaps had been told by Usher — that he was from Hightown and contemporary newspaper coverage said that he was born in nearby Liversedge (which suggests that he had a Yorkshire accent rather than an Irish one).
Our next trace of Usher comes on 31 January 1880, when he married a woman from Huddersfield called Sarah Grant, who lived in Hightown and was the daughter of a cloth weaver. Usher gave his occupation as a coal miner in the marriage register. The wedding took place in an Anglican church in Birstall (a town between Hightown and Leeds), so either Usher had converted from Catholicism or was hiding his background. That June (six months after the wedding), the couple had their first child, Honora (or Norah). The following year, the 1881 census recorded the family still living in Hightown and a second daughter was born there in 1883.
The 1881 census listed Usher as a coal miner but around this time he began to play professional cricket, a potentially lucrative career that could pay more than any manual worker could earn. It is not certain when or where he began playing cricket. But by 1882 he was playing as an amateur for “Hightown Young England” and by 1884 he was one of the professionals in at least one game for a club called Spen Victoria in nearby Cleckheaton. Around the same time he began playing for another local club, Heckmondwike, although it is not clear if he was initially doing so as a professional. But in 1885 he played for the cricket club of Hodgson and Simpson’s, a Wakefield-based soap manufacturer; given the distance between Wakefield and Hightown (around ten miles) it seems a safe assumption that he was a professional there. By 1886, he was one of Heckmondwike’s professionals and he also made appearances for Holmfirth (around 13 miles from Hightown) which again must have been in a professional capacity. Therefore, Usher must have established himself as a good enough professional cricketer to be in local demand by the mid-1880s. However, the death of his wife Sarah in mid-1886, at the age of just 29, must have thrown his life into turmoil and he was left with the sole responsibility for two young children. Perhaps this bereavement was the reason that he moved from Hightown to Leeds, where he began to play a higher standard of cricket.
Usher was employed by Holbeck Cricket Club in 1887 and made a good impression in his first season, being mentioned favourably in local newspapers. To cement his fresh start, at the end of that year he remarried. His second wife was Emily Smith (aged only 20 at the time, eight years younger than him), the daughter of a Leeds miner whose family lived on the same road as Usher in Hunslet Moor. In the marriage register, he described himself as a general labourer (and never gave his occupation as a professional cricketer on any official document), but most of his income must have been coming from sport by this stage. His form for Holbeck had attracted the attention of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and he was given a trial at the start of the 1888 season. In an early-season match for Yorkshire against the MCC at Lord’s, he made his only first-class appearance. He took two good wickets in the MCC’s first innings — the Test batter William Scotton and Kent’s George Hearne — but achieved nothing else in the game. Although he took a hat-trick for the county against a “Colts” team (containing twenty-two players) the following week, he had not done enough to earn a place in the county eleven, where Bobby Peel was the incumbent left-arm spinner. Although he was given another trial in the middle of the season — he played for a Yorkshire Colts team against Nottinghamshire Colts and for Yorkshire against Cheshire in a non-first-class game (when Cricket described him as a “slow round-arm bowler”) — he made little impression and was discarded. As it happened, Usher was enduring the least successful season of his career and his chance with Yorkshire was gone.
However, there were plenty of opportunities for professional cricketers below first-class level at this time. Usher continued to play for Holbeck until 1890 — topping the bowling averages each season and winning several prizes from the club — and signed for Wortley Cricket Club in 1891, where he was again successful. He also had two more children with his second wife; the 1891 census recorded them still living on the same road in Hunslet Moor, alongside Usher’s two daughters from his first marriage and two sons born in 1890 and 1891. But shortly after this, the family were uprooted again as Usher made a step up the cricketing ladder by trying to establish himself in the Lancashire League.
This was the most prestigious and — perhaps more importantly for Usher and his growing family — best paid cricket league in England at the time. There were plenty of opportunities for professionals who were good enough and so Usher signed a contract to play for Bacup, where the family moved in time for the 1892 season, and was among the leading bowlers in the Lancashire League for 1892. Although he did well the following season, when Bacup retained his services, he was not quite as effective and so he signed for Rishton in 1894. Once again, he was respectable without excelling and he was not re-signed. Usher therefore had to look elsewhere — not least because in 1893 he and his wife had another daughter, born in Bacup — and so he signed for Whalley, a club in the Ribblesdale Cricket League. This represented a drop in quality and salary, but he made a success of it and played for Whalley from 1895 until 1899, becoming the club’s leading bowler. While the family lived in Whalley, three more children were born. However, Usher’s first child Norah/Honora died in 1898 at the age of seventeen.
The Haslingden team that won the Lancashire League in 1900. Back row: C. T. Salkeld, W. Harris, G. Parker, E. Hargreaves (scorer), Sam Watson, A.G. Shaw, J. Usher (pro). Front row: G. E. Bentley (Chairman), T. Rawlinson, T. Smith, W. Warburton (Captain), J. W. Cowpe, J. P. Green, W. Brooks (Secretary) (Image: Haslingden Old and New)
As he approached the age of forty — which was not old for a late-Victorian professional cricketer — he reached his peak as a bowler, and it seems that in his time with Whalley he honed his skills. His batting also improved and he became a regular stand-in professional in the Lancashire League. Between 1896 and 1899, while contracted to Whalley, he made fifteen appearances in the League when various teams’ professionals were unavailable. And finally in 1900 (when a rule change limited each team to one professional each), he was given another opportunity. He signed for Haslingden (where he also moved his family), and enjoyed his greatest triumph. Haslingden had never won the Lancashire League, but driven by Usher and the amateur batter George Parker, the club challenged throughout the 1900 season. He took a record number of wickets and also scored useful runs. When the season ended, Haslingden were tied at the top of the League with Church Cricket Club and a play-off match — effectively a final — was arranged to determine the winner. The match, played across two innings, lasted two days; as he had been all season, Usher was dominant, taking nine wickets in the match and leading Haslingden to a 116-run win. This took his wicket total to 150, a number that has never been exceeded (some sources, including Haslingden’s own website, state that Usher took 143 wickets; this would have been a record until beaten by Charlie Griffith of the West Indies in 1964). The team were given a rapturous welcome when they returned to Haslingden, and Usher was given a great deal of credit in securing the team’s first League title.
However, amid the excitement and celebration had been one controversial incident that would come back to haunt Usher. Near the end of the season, Haslingden faced Nelson, a club with no chance of winning the title. Before the game, during a conversation with Harry Riley, Nelson’s professional, Usher seemingly attempted to bribe his opponent to play badly. The version of events put out by Haslingden in the aftermath was that Riley had said to Usher, referring to the importance of the game: “Two points [for Halsingden] would be worth something today Jack.” Usher replied: “Yes a few loose balls would be worth a sovereign or two.” Haslingden argued that Usher had been making a tasteless and inappropriate joke which had backfired, but Riley reported what had occurred and Nelson were incensed. There was some kind of scuffle during the match involving the Nelson captain (which was possibly but not definitely connected to the attempted bribe), and both the Nelson and Haslingden committees became involved, and the incident was reported to the Lancashire League Committee.
Haslingden won easily by eight wickets (Usher two for 42 and 64 not out; Riley 27 and no wicket for 44 from ten overs); in the return match a few days later, Usher took six for 44 including a hat-trick and his team won again (Riley 29 and three for 38). But despite these wins, Usher’s actions threatened to bring consequences on Haslingden and there was a nervous wait until the League committee heard the case the following week. Usher admitted his guilt; he was fined £10 and forced to apologise, but not action was taken against Haslingden. At this distance, it is not quite clear what had taken place nor how serious it was. But Usher later admitted offering Riley £1 to bowl badly, and also admitted that he had placed a bet (possibly several) on the outcome of the game. Could it be that he was in some sort of trouble related to gambling and needed Haslingden to win? Perhaps, with the benefit of hindsight, it was the first sign of a gambling problem that was getting out of hand. Or did he simply want to make certain of the points for his team? In either case, it seems unlikely that this was the only such incident: did others go unreported?
Haslingden Cricket Club (Image: Haslingden Old and New)
The 1901 census recorded Usher and his family living in Haslingden. Usher’s surviving daughter from his first marriage was visiting another family on the night of the census, but there were six other children in the household, three of whom were under five years old. Also present on the night of the census was Emily’s younger sister Polly, who might have been helping her, not least because her youngest son cannot have been well; he died later that year at the age of one. How much did the death of his son — and the 1898 death of his first daughter — affect Usher? It might not be a coincidence that it was only after these bereavements that he began behaving in a professionally-self-destructive manner, and that there are signs of a developing gambling problem. Or could financial pressure have affected him? He and his wife had two more children — born in Helmshore in 1902 and Haslingden in 1904 — taking their total to seven children living at home (his eldest daughter married in early 1904).
After his triumph of 1900, Usher continued to play for Haslingden until the end of the 1902 season; he continued to be a leading bowler and passed a hundred wickets in his last two seasons. By 1902, he was being paid £4 per week plus a guaranteed benefit of £30 which amounted to a salary of £118: this was well above average for a professional cricketer (although short of what a county player could earn) and although it is hard to be certain, he must have been one of the better-paid players in the League. In June, he signed a new contract, which was greeted enthusiastically in the press: the Lancashire Evening Post noted that he had topped his club’s bowling averages in every season since he had become a professional. He was to be paid £130 for the season (just over £6 per week), with no benefit but talent money of half a guinea each time he took six or more wickets (for context, he achieved this twelve times in 1902, which would have added £1 and 10 shillings to his salary). But this contract was never fulfilled and instead Usher’s career fell apart, discreetly away from the eyes of the press and public.
In August, it was announced by Haslingden that Usher’s contract for 1903 had been cancelled. The Haslingden Gazette reported that he had not been fulfilling some duties specified in his contract — namely bowling to and coaching club members — and had no desire to do so. Rather than cause an awkward situation, he requested that he be released, and it was reported that he left the club on good terms. The Haslingden Gazette noted his popularity and said that he was regarded locally as “one of the best pros, if not the best pro, in the Lancashire League.” But there was just a hint of dissatisfaction from the Haslingden members: the report suggested that the inclusion of talent money in his contract had not been popular with members (specifically the notion that there was no upper limit on runs conceded), but it later emerged that their concerns were considerably greater than that. There were also signs of other issues in the background; Haslingden informed the League committee of the cancellation of Usher’s contract, and were asked for “full particulars”. Their reply to the committee was omitted from the official minutes of any meeting, nor are any discussions recorded that concerned Usher. Even more strangely, after the 1902 season Haslingden submitted and then withdrew a motion that professionals should not be allowed to take part in the League.
Meanwhile, having left Haslingden, Usher rejoined Whalley for 1903 and enjoyed his usual success. But the mystery deepened at the beginning of the 1904 season when Rishton, a Lancashire League club, asked Usher to play as a stand-in for their unavailable professional, to which he agreed. But the Rishton captain and secretary in the meantime heard that Usher had been “black-listed” by the League and would not be permitted to play. They contacted the chairman of the League committee, who informed them that there was a “tacit understanding” that Usher would not be allowed to play for any club. When informed of this, Usher tried to contact the committee and asked to be allowed to attend the next meeting. He received no reply, and when he turned up at the meeting was refused admittance, while the actions of the secretary and chairman were officially endorsed by the committee.
Unable to understand why he was being ostracised, and suspecting that the circumstances of his departure from Haslingden might have played a part, Usher contacted his former club. The secretary therefore wrote to the League to say that Haslingden had no objection to Usher signing for another club. No reply was given and Usher continued to play for Whalley. Yet Haslingden’s interest in their former player had clearly been rekindled. Midway through the 1904 season, Haslingden asked Usher to sign a new contract, worth £125, to play for them in 1905. However, the club seemed to expect some trouble because the contract stated that if the League objected, Haslingden were free to sign a replacement.
Haslingden’s actions ignited another controversy. At their next meeting, the League committee rejected Haslingden’s attempt to re-sign Usher. Furthermore, the clearly irritated committee decided to discuss at the next meeting Haslingden’s possible expulsion from the League for their “direct defiance … to the expressed wishes of the League Committee”, a decision that they deliberately made public. The club duly wrote a letter of apology and promised not to defy the committee again. They suggested that they had been unaware of the decision that Usher should not play. Once again unable to understand why the League had rejected him, Usher tried to discover what lay behind these decision but received no response. Instead of playing for Haslingden in 1905, he joined Crompton in the Central Lancashire League, signing a contract worth £102 10 shillings, with a guaranteed benefit match.
But the actions of the committee, and the two occasions when they had prevented him playing for League clubs, rankled. Having taken legal advice, Usher decided to take the League to court, arguing that it had “maliciously, unlawfully, and with intent to interfere with him, and without justification, combined and conspired together, and with others, to induce certain persons not to employ him as a professional, and to break contracts which they had made with him.” He asked for £50 from the committee of the Lancashire League for loss of wages and damages, and an injunction preventing them from stopping his employment in the Lancashire League, which he stated was the best paid in the country. As part of his claim, he argued that he had lost a lot of money by being prevented from playing, that he should have been told of the nature of any charge, and that the League had no legal right to control professionals. His decision to pursue the League through the courts proved disastrous, not least because the actual circumstances of his departure from Haslingden in 1902 were brought fully into the public arena, meticulously reported in the Haslingden Gazette and summarised in many other newpapers.
Usher’s case was heard over the space of two months at three separate sittings of the County Court, held in Accrington and Haslingden, before Judge Coventry. During the hearings, the legal counsel representing the Lancashire League argued that as well as not fulfilling his contractual duties for Haslingden, Usher had also spent time at race meetings (“and other places”) without permission of the club. Usher did not deny these claims. Under cross-examination, Usher admitted that he had placed bets on the result of League games (despite the implied disproval of the League) in which he was playing. When questioned, he did not quite deny (and was quite evasive on this and similar points) that he had placed bets against Haslingden: one particular instance seems to have been when Haslingden played Colne in 1902. Of the two games against Colne in 1902, Haslingden lost the first (Usher two for 58 from 15 overs and 24 runs) and won the second (Usher 1 run and eight for 26); one witness who gave evidence that Usher had bet against his team explicitly stated that there was no question that he had not tried in the relevant game. But this was not the only problem concerning betting. Usher also admitted that he enjoyed betting on horses, but denied a charge of “openly offering bets of from £10 to £20” in an Accrington public house before the play-off match of 1900. There were suggestions — denied not entirely convincingly by Usher — that he had toured local public houses placing and then collecting on bets after this famous game.
Discussion then turned to the actions of the League concerning Usher in 1902. After being informed that Haslingden had cancelled the contract with Usher, the committee had made further enquiries which revealed Usher’s problematic gambling. When the committee met in October 1902, Haslingden’s representative said that they would have liked Usher back, but that if they could not have him, they did not consider it fair for other clubs to take him. The other club representatives then “agreed that Usher was not a suitable person for a League club, and agreed not to employ him.” Usher’s counsel had searched the minutes in vain for a record of this, but it was revealed that the decision was an informal one. Some witnesses seemed to be reluctant to say what it was that Usher had actually done wrong until the president of the League appeared at the second hearing. He revealed that Haslingden told the committee that “Usher was released for neglect of duty, betting and other things”, and that Usher had been betting on matches in which he played. Under cross-examination the president admitted that the complaint about betting had not been part of Haslingden’s original decision to terminate Usher’s contract, but had been the main reason that the other clubs agreed not to play him. He also indicated that the complaints about betting had not been made during the bribery incident of 1900. He suggested the League did not communicate with Usher as they “had had enough of him” and he should have been aware that the problem was betting on matches. However, the president agreed that he disapproved of professionals betting on “anything”, even if he claimed not to have any issue with Usher betting on horse races. More details also emerged about Usher’s problems at Haslingden that resulted in the termination of his contract. The League secretary told the court that Usher had used bad language to some Haslingden members. He also said that Haslingden did not put all the charges in writing as they did not wish to harm Usher’s reputation, but passed the details orally to the committee. A representative from Haslingden confirmed that the club had not been happy with Usher’s betting, as he would “bet not only on horses, but on anything” (he recalled Usher betting £5 on a game of marbles) and that members had threatened to withdraw their support. The Haslingden representative agreed that Usher was not “a fit and proper person to be a professional” for the club. But Usher’s counsel made the very valid point that Haslingden cannot have been too upset with Usher as they tried to re-engage him for 1905.
There was also extensive discussion about the applications from Rishton and Haslingden in 1904 that Usher be allowed to play. The League counsel argued that neither club had been forbidden from signing Usher, but that they had been merely advised. No mention was made in court of the explicit threat to expel Haslingden from the League. The president of the League made the point that the decision of whether or not to employ Usher had to be made by the clubs, not the League, even though it had clearly been the committee which prevented him playing. In response to Usher’s other claims, the League argued that his acceptance of the £10 fine in 1900 and the provision in his 1904 contract that it could be cancelled if unacceptable to the League proved that he implicitly accepted their authority.
At the third hearing, in Accrington in May, Judge Coventry found in favour of the Lancashire League, suggesting that its aim was the “promotion and encouragement of good cricket”, even if its status was legally murky. He believed that the incidents of 1900 (when he said Usher could have been dismissed or suspended) and the problems in 1902 (and the suggestion he bet against his own team, which the judge considered plausible) meant that the decision of the committee to blacklist Usher informally was justified and legal because they were not acting against Usher personally but in the interests of the League. He awarded costs against Usher of £54, which the League agreed to lower to £15. Other costs were also reduced, but some fell due in August. But perhaps more importantly, Usher’s extreme betting habits (which today might be regarded as a gambling addiction) and willingness to bet against his own team (which as it would today carried undertones of corruption and match-fixing, which would have been exacerbated by his attempt at bribery in 1900) had been revealed to the world and well as the previously private judgement that he was not a suitable person to be employed as a cricket professional. Potentially, his attempt to seek justice could have ruined his entire career.
Carr and Parker’s Mill: the mill lodge (i.e. pond/reservoir) is visible in the centre of the photograph (Image: Haslingden Old and New)
After the judgement, Usher continued to play for Crompton until late July. While carrying out his duties on Monday 31 July, he said that he felt unwell and returned home. That Friday, he left his house early in the morning and did not return until the following Tuesday night (8 August). After spending a few minutes talking to his wife, he left the house and was never seen alive again. Early next morning, around 5:30am, a 60-year-old warehouseman called Alfred Parker found a “vest” (probably a waistcoat) on a bank close to Carr and Parker’s Mill lodge (a pond/small reservoir used to power a water mill), on a pile of stones. He initially took it to his mother’s as he thought “it might belong there” (it seems he might have fancied it for himself) but when he saw the size, he tried a neighbour to see if it was his. The neighbour searched the pockets and found miniature photographs of Usher’s wife and seven youngest children. Parker then took it to the police, who arranged to dredge the mill lodge, where the body of Usher was found at 10 am on 9 August. He was just a few yards from the bank, and it appeared that he had jumped from a pipe that pumped hot water into the lodge. Carr and Parker’s Mill was visible from Usher’s house.
At the inquest, held on Thursday 10 August, Emily Usher told the Coroner that Usher had come home on Saturday 29 July and not got up the next day until just before noon, gone immediately back to bed. He had some food and then went out at 7:15pm and did not return for dinner; ordinarily he went out in the morning and came home at night. When he came home on the Thursday (3 August), he was restless and “talked a long time, talk that I didn’t care about, but he was not a person that was very particular”. The next day, he cleaned his boots and left the house around 8:30am and did not return until the Thursday. Emily revealed that she had been making desperate enquiries as to his whereabouts, but when he arrived home around 10:30pm he merely told her that he had been in Ripon (where there were horse races), but that “I don’t know that it matters much”. He then sat down for a few minutes before getting his cap and leaving the house again, saying: “Goodbye”. An alternative narrative had been reported in the Haslingden Gazette: that Usher had been seen in Haslingden on Friday and Saturday. One man recalled seeing him in a public house on Saturday night, and when he came to leave, Usher supposedly said, when one of the patrons said goodbye to him: “Yes. Goodbye for a long time.” Those present thought that he had been on his way to the railway station, to travel to Crompton, but had stayed at the public house too late and missed the train. In any case, he did not play in Crompton’s game, although he had been expected to do so. Although this version was not examined at the inquest, it is plausible that he went from Haslingden to Ripon, where he attended the races until Tuesday night. But there was no doubt that Usher was not well. Emily told the Coroner that he had “said a long time that he would not live through his trouble.” She also said that he had been “strange [in his manner] a long time” and had been “in trouble a long time.” She did not specify what the actual trouble might have been, nor was she asked, perhaps because everyone would have known.
When all the evidence had been heard, the Coroner said that it was “common knowledge” that Usher “was in trouble lately” and “no doubt he drowned himself”. The jury returned a verdict of suicide while “by reason of his adverse circumstances he was not of sound mind”. His burial was delayed until 12 August owing to “certain difficulties”. Several Haslingden representatives attended the funeral, and wreaths were send by Crompton Cricket Club and Whalley Cricket Club. Haslingden and Accrington also seem to have had a hand in financing the funeral. The following September, a benefit match for Usher’s widow and family was played at Haslingden, which featured several leading Lancashire League players. Usher’s suicide made many newspapers, including the Daily Mirror (which called him Fisher a the start of the article before reverting to Usher), many of which used the syndicated headline of “Blacklisted Cricketer”. Most stories mentioned his legal action and linked his “blacklisting” to his attempt at bribery in 1900. Some newspapers — including ones in Haslingden — suggested that some of his owed money was due on the day his body was found. The Haslingden Gazette reported that local people were shocked at Usher’s death, as he had been very popular and was “the last man in the world of whom they would have expected such a thing.” It reported that he was not “ruffled” by anything, although it suggested his “reserve” could have contributed.
So, what drove Usher to suicide? The potential end of his cricket career? Shame from the failed attempt to extract compensation? The exposure of his gambling habits? An inability to pay the money he owed the Lancashire League in costs? Had he been losing money for some time to gambling? His words to his wife before he died might indicate that he had lost money at Ripon. If he did indeed have a gambling addiction, it is not unlikely that he had accumulated debts far beyond what he owed the Lancashire League. A story that later circulated in Haslingden was recorded by David Frith in Silence of the Heart (2001): “An unconfirmed narrative has it that [Usher] took to handling bets on the horses, setting up his position in a pub in Helmshore. What he never knew — at least until he had been rendered nearly penniless — was that the sharp local punters had set up a system whereby the race results were signalled secretly by telegraph via the railway signal-box within view of the pub. Usher would take bets some time after the scheduled start of a race, comfortable in the belief that it would take some time for the results to come through. In fact, the punters were many minutes ahead of the poor man.” There is no corroboration other than one of Usher’s children was born in Helmshore. And over all this, how much had family worries played a part? How was he supporting his still-growing family? It should not be forgotten that his problems first came to light shortly after the death of his first daughter and shortly before the death of his son; there might have been other health concerns too. At the time of Usher’s death, Emily was pregnant and gave birth to another son in 1906, but he lived only a matter of weeks. Her eldest son also died later that year. There may have been other children: on the 1911 census, Emily recorded that her first marriage to Usher had resulted in five living children and five who had died. That would mean that she and Usher had two other children who had not survived.
At least the cricketing world rallied around Usher’s family after his death. At the next meeting of the Lancashire League committee, it was agreed not to pursue the claim against Usher and in September 1906, a match was played at Haslingden for the benefit of Usher’s widow and family, which featured several leading Lancashire League players. Perhaps some of those involved felt a little guilty for their part in Usher’s downfall. At the time of the 1911 census, Emily Usher was living in Haslingden (with her children and mother, while working as a weaver) as the common-law wife of a man called Templeman-Lynch; she later legally remarried and died in 1932 at the age of 62.
Old Ebor 
Another pro’s life which ended in tragedy. Fascinating , and a good read, as always.
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