David Rhodes (cricketer)

David Kirk Rhodes (20 June 1847 — 22 December 1937) was an English-born cricketer who played in New Zealand for Otago during the 1874–75 season.

Rhodes was born at Huddersfield in Yorkshire in 1847, the second son of John Turner, a woollen manufacturer in the town. He was educated at Huddersfield College and worked for his father before emigrating to Dunedin in New Zealand in 1872 where he established a wool merchants business.[1][2]

Rhodes played club cricket for Dunedin Cricket Club, where he was the Secretary for some time. He made a single first-class cricket appearance, playing for Otago against Canterbury in a January 1875 match at the Hagley Oval. He recorded a duck in his first innings and scored one not out in his second.[3] As well as cricket, Rhodes had an "excellent reputation" as a hurdle racer[4] who was an experienced athlete.[5] He also played representative rugby union for Otago.[6]

In 1875 Rhodes joined the New Zealand Railways Department and worked as a stationmaster, a post which also involved acting as the postmaster.[2] He worked at Herbert before moving to take up post at Waikouaiti in 1882.[7] He had also been in partnership with his brother as a importer of woollen goods; the partnership was dissolved in 1885.[8] He was married and had seven children when, in 1887, he was charged with embezzling a sum of around £130 from the post office accounts. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison.[9][10][11]

In 1891 Rhodes joined the Tasmanian Government Railways where he was appointed as a stationmaster after a few months.[2] From 1894 he worked for the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company and by 1897 he was living at Queenstown in Tasmania.[12] He died at Caulfield in Victoria in 1937. He was aged 90.[13]