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).
Family The son of James Graham (1839–1911),Deaths: Graham, The Age (9 February 1911), p. 1Personal, The Argus (22 February 1911), p. 13. and Mary Theresa Graham (1846–1886), née Lauder,Deaths: Graham, The Weekly Times (27 November 1886), p. 6. he was born in Carlton on 22 November 1870.
Cricket He was taught to play cricket at Berwick Grammar School, by its owner/founder Edward Antonio Lloyd Vieusseux (1854–1917).Social Notes, The (Melbourne) Leader (10 November 1917), p. 43. On leaving school Graham joined the South Melbourne Cricket Club;A Rift in the Clouds, The (Melbourne) Punch (12 December 1893), p. 2.Harry Graham: The Rising Victorian Cricketer, The Weekly Times (14 January 1893), p. 21.Cricketers of the Season, The Australasian (15 April 1893), p. 44. he later moved to the Melbourne Cricket Club (1894/1895)Cricket Chatter, The Australasian (Melbourne) (24 March 1894), p. 18. and, finally, to the Carlton Cricket Club.He was born in Drummond Street, Carlton: Cricket Chatter, The Australasian (Melbourne) (18 October 1902), p. 22.Cricket Chatter, The Austrlasian (11 October 1902), p. 21Notes and Comments, The Weekly Times (18 October 1902), p. 18.Death of Harry Graham, The Australasian (11 February 1911), p. 22.
Known affectionately as "the Little Dasher",'Old Cricketer', "Cricket: Fourth Test", The Weekly Times (18 February 1911), p. 22. 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.A Famous Cricketer: Harry Graham Dies in N.Z.: A Great Bat and a Brilliant Field, The (Sydney) Sun (8 February 1911), p. 1.
Football Recruited from the Marylebone Football Club,The Premier Juniors—Marylebone, The (Melbourne) Leader (3 October 1891), p. 21.Note that this is not the East Geelong team, which played under the name of Marylebone Football Club from 1893 to 1906. Graham was a leading Australian rules footballer, playing for Melbourne Football Club, firstly in the Victorian Football Association for a number of years,Sport and Play, Melbourne Punch (19 May 1892), p. 11. 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,Football, The Argus (2 July 1900), p. 7The Football Season: Melbourne v. Essendon, The Age (2 July 1900), p. 9Melbourne Football, The (Sydney) Referee (4 July 1900), p. 8. and the second against Carlton, on 7 July 1900 (round 10), in which he scored two goals.
New Zealand After he retired from first-class cricket in Australia, in 1903 Graham accepted the post of coach at Otago Boys' High School in Dunedin.Cricket Chatter, (Saturday, 31 October 1903), p.23. 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.
Death "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".Harry Graham. Demonwiki 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:Deaths: Graham, The Age (9 February 1911), p. 1. "Weak in health and weak in mind for some time past, [his] death was not unexpected".Death of Harry Graham: A Dasher of the '90's, The (Emerald Hill) Record (18 February 1911), p. 5.
References
Further reading Cardwell, Ronald, Harry Graham: The Little Dasher, The Cricket Publishing Company, (West Pennant Hills), 2017. Coverdale, Brydon, "Australia's Winter Allrounders: XI Test Cricketers who played Australian Rules football at the highest level" , Cricinfo, 28 May 2007. Hope, Ben, "Club finds Link to early Test Great", The Berwick Gazette, 20 January 2010.
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