George Burke (cricketer)

George Humphrey Burke (18 August 1847 – 24 July 1920) was an English professional cricketer. He played one first-class match for Kent County Cricket Club in 1877.[1]

Burke was born at Greenwich, in what was then part of Kent, in 1847.[2] He was the son of Edmund and Harriet Burke (née Humphrey); his mother was originally from Westerham and his father was a dock labourer, the family living in Greenwich and in Plaistow, Bromley during Burke's childhood.[3]

A right-arm fast bowler, Burke was employed as a professional cricketer. He had a number of appointments throughout the 1870s, most notably at Prince's Cricket Ground and The Oval, as well as at Dudley, and was "in demand" as a ground bowler.[3] He played club cricket for a variety of sides in West Kent,[3] and in his only first-class match, an 1877 fixture at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury, scored a total of nine runs and took four wickets for Kent against Hampshire.[2] He stood as an umpire in eight first-class matches between 1875 and 1887.[2][3]

In 1879 Burke married Mary Rivett at Camberwell. He took over the shop his mother ran at Eynesford in Kent for a time and later worked as a painter for a variety of railway companies―the family moving regularly throughout London as well as living in Cambridge for a time. Burke and his wife had seven children. He died at Peckham in London in 1920 from chronic nephritis;[3] he was aged 72.[1] He is buried in Camberwell Old Cemetery.[4]