| Harry Graham | |
| Fullname: | Henry Graham |
| Birth Date: | 22 November 1870 |
| Birth Place: | Melbourne, Australia |
| Death Place: | Seacliff, New Zealand |
| Batting: | Right-handed |
| Bowling: | Legbreak |
| Club1: | Victoria |
| Club2: | Otago |
| Columns: | 2 |
| Column1: | Test |
| Matches1: | 6 |
| Runs1: | 301 |
| Bat Avg1: | 30.10 |
| 100S/50S1: | 2/0 |
| Top Score1: | 107 |
| Deliveries1: | – |
| Wickets1: | – |
| Bowl Avg1: | – |
| Fivefor1: | – |
| Tenfor1: | – |
| Best Bowling1: | – |
| Catches/Stumpings1: | 3/– |
| Column2: | First-class |
| Matches2: | 114 |
| Runs2: | 5,054 |
| Bat Avg2: | 26.32 |
| 100S/50S2: | 7/24 |
| Top Score2: | 124 |
| Deliveries2: | 298 |
| Wickets2: | 6 |
| Bowl Avg2: | 43.00 |
| Fivefor2: | 0 |
| Tenfor2: | 0 |
| Best Bowling2: | 4/39 |
| Catches/Stumpings2: | 85/– |
| International: | true |
| Country: | Australia |
| Testdebutagainst: | England |
| Testdebutdate: | 17 July |
| Testdebutyear: | 1893 |
| Testcap: | 63 |
| Lasttestdate: | 22 June |
| Lasttestagainst: | England |
| Lasttestyear: | 1896 |
| Source: | https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/163/163.html CricketArchive |
| Date: | 19 August |
| Year: | 2022 |
Harry Graham (22 November 1870 – 7 February 1911) was an Australian cricket player – a right-handed batsman, who played six Test matches for Australia, and also played cricket for New Zealand – and an Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
The son of James Graham (1839–1911),[1] [2] and Mary Theresa Graham (1846–1886), née Lauder,[3] he was born in Carlton on 22 November 1870.
He was taught to play cricket at Berwick Grammar School, by its owner/founder Edward Antonio Lloyd Vieusseux (1854–1917).[4] On leaving school Graham joined the South Melbourne Cricket Club;[5] [6] [7] he later moved to the Melbourne Cricket Club (1894/1895)[8] and, finally, to the Carlton Cricket Club.[9] [10] [11] [12] Known affectionately as "the Little Dasher",[13] Graham scored a century on his Test debut in 1893 at Lord's, and scored 107 in his first Test on home soil, in Sydney. He was only the third player to score a century on Test debut, and the first player to score a century in the second innings on Test debut.[14] [15]
Recruited from the Marylebone Football Club,[16] [17] Graham was a leading Australian rules footballer, playing for Melbourne Football Club, firstly in the Victorian Football Association for a number of years,[18] where he was runner-up in the goal kicking in 1892 with 42 goals.
He made a comeback in 1900, playing two games for the Melbourne First XVIII in the new Victorian Football League: the first against Essendon, on 30 June 1900 (round 9), in which he played well and scored one goal,[19] [20] [21] and the second against Carlton, on 7 July 1900 (round 10), in which he scored two goals.
After he retired from first-class cricket in Australia, in 1903 Graham accepted the post of coach at Otago Boys' High School in Dunedin.[22] He also played several times for Otago in first-class matches from 1903–04 to 1906–07, but without reproducing the brilliance of his Australian form.[23]
"In his later years Graham was gripped with alcoholism and mental illness and he was committed to an asylum near Dunedin, New Zealand in 1907 where he remained until his death".[24] On 7 February 1911, eleven weeks past his 40th birthday, Harry Graham died in Seacliff, a small village in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island:[25] "Weak in health and weak in mind for some time past, [his] death was not unexpected".[26]