William Maples (13 June 1820 – 18 May 1854) was an English civil servant in the Indian civil service and a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Cambridge University in 1839.[1] He was born in Islington, London and died at Kolkata, then named Calcutta, in India.
Maples was educated at Winchester College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1838.[2] He played cricket both at school and at Cambridge, and appeared as a lower-order batsman in one match that has been judged to have been first-class, the 1839 University Match between Cambridge University and Oxford University, scoring one run and taking one catch.[1] [3]
Maples appears not to have taken a degree at Cambridge University; in 1840 he entered the Honourable East India Company's service and in 1843 he was recorded as assistant to the Accountant General in Bengal.[2] In the report of The Times of his marriage to Henrietta Westmacott at Calcutta in 1844, he is described as "second son of T. F. Maples, Esq., of Crouch-end, Hornsey".[4] The marriage produced at least one son, Frederick George, who was educated at Highgate School and St John's College, Cambridge and became a Roman Catholic priest.[2]