Thomas Latham (cricketer)

For the New Zealand cricketer born in 1992, see Tom Latham (cricketer).

Thomas Latham (22 June 1847 – 13 January 1926) was an English barrister and cricketer who played first-class cricket for Cambridge University and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1873 and 1874. He was born in St Pancras, London, the son of Henry Latham, a Chancery registrar, and died at Folkestone, Kent.

Thomas Latham

Personal information
Full name	Thomas Latham
Born	22 June 1847 St Pancras, Middlesex, England
Died	13 January 1926(1926-01-13) (aged 78) West Folkestone, Kent, England
Batting	Right-handed
Relations	Geoffrey Latham (son)
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1873–1874	Cambridge University
1874	Marylebone Cricket Club
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 9 Runs scored 293 Batting average 18.31 100s/50s –/– Top score 48 Catches/stumpings 5/–
Source: Cricinfo, 20 April 2021

As a cricketer, Latham was a middle-order right-handed batsman. After non-first-class trials matches in 1872, he played fairly regularly in first-team matches for Cambridge University in 1873, and he was picked for the University Match against Oxford University, in which he scored 0 and 48 in a match that Cambridge lost narrowly. The 48 was Latham's highest score in first-class cricket. In 1874 he played for MCC against Cambridge University in the university's match immediately before the University Match, and then was picked for his second game against Oxford; this time, he was less successful with innings of 1 and 4, and Cambridge lost the game by an innings. It was Latham's last appearance in first-class cricket, though he appeared in minor matches for amateur teams to the mid-1880s.

Career outside cricket

Educated at Highgate School, Winchester College and St John's College, Cambridge, Latham graduated in 1874 and was called to the bar as a barrister in the same year. He practised on the Western circuit; then from 1881 to 1888 he was special pleader at the courts in Shanghai, after which he retired to Folkestone where he died in 1926. His son was the cricketer and colonial administrator Geoffrey Latham, while his grandson was the artist John Latham.