Poor Fred

foot of page The epigram | The royal patron

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The epigram

When Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2002, her son Charles III had been Prince of Wales for 70 years, ever since he was a nipper. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Edward VII succeeded his mother Queen Victoria having been Prince of Wales for 59 years—his entire life thus far. So, you may think, these crown princes always succeed in the end? Well, most of them do, but not all.

Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales

The last who didn't was Frederick Louis (1707–1751). He was the "poor Fred" of the well-known epigram, and he was a patron of cricket. Fred's father was the unpleasant George II, whom he detested. When George II died in 1760, his successor was "Farmer" George III, Fred's son.

I don't think we know who originally composed the "Poor Fred" epigram, but it has been widely quoted, by Thackeray among others. It goes:

Here lies poor Fred who was alive and is dead,
Had it been his father I had much rather,
Had it been his sister nobody would have missed her,
Had it been his brother, still better than another,
Had it been the whole generation, so much better for the nation,
But since it is Fred who was alive and is dead,
There is no more to be said!

Fred had five sisters, and maybe none of them would have been missed. He had two brothers, but one died as a baby so "still better than another" was the vile Duke of Cumberland, who was responsible for the massacre at Culloden.

"Had it been the whole generation, so much better for the nation". Indeed.

The royal patron

There's only one King Fred

Fred was born in Hanover on 1 February 1707. At the time, he was fourth in line to the throne, then occupied by Queen Anne. He lived in Hanover until 1727, when he became Prince of Wales after his father became George II.

If Fred had survived his father, he might have become King Fred I, and so t'fastest bloody bowler that ever drew breath would have been King Fred II.

Anyway, by the time Frederick Louis arrived in England, cricket had developed into arguably the country's most popular team sport—in the southeast certainly—and it thrived on gambling. Perhaps because he wished to "anglicise" and so fit in with his new society, Fred developed an academic interest in cricket that soon became a genuine enthusiasm. He began to make wagers and then to patronise and play the sport, even forming his own team on several occasions.

The earliest mention of him in cricket annals is a contemporary notice about the "great cricket match" at Richmond Green on 9 August 1731. The St James's Evening Post on 27–29 July announced it would be played for 100 guineas "by several persons of Distinction", and the Prince of Wales was expected to be present. He was also expected to attend the Surrey/London match played 28 September that year on Kennington Common. This was promoted as "likely to be the best performance of this kind that has been seen for some time". Interestingly, the notice added that "for the convenience of the gamesters, the ground is to be staked and roped out". Enclosure was a new practice in 1731 and it could have been done partly for the benefit of a royal visitor.

In August 1732, the Whitehall Evening Post reported Fred attending "a great cricket match" at Kew on Thursday, 27 July.

Der Kaiser

By the 1733 season, he was really getting involved. We read of him giving a guinea to each player at a Surrey/Middlesex game on Moulsey Hurst. Then he awarded a silver cup to a combined Surrey & Middlesex team who had just beaten Kent, arguably the best county team at the time, again on Moulsey Hurst. This is the first reference in cricket history to any kind of trophy (other than hard cash) being contested. On Friday, 31 August, the Prince of Wales' XI played Sir William Gage's XI on, yes, Moulsey Hurst—he certainly liked his cricket to be by the river. The result is unknown but the teams were said to be of county standard, so presumably it was in effect a Surrey v Sussex match.

In the years following 1733, there are frequent references to Fred as a patron of cricket and as an occasional player. It's doubtful if he was actually any good as a player, but you never know. Germans tend to be pretty good at sport. Kaiser Franz, anyone?

When Fred died on 31 March 1751, cricket suffered a double blow because his death closely followed that of Charles Lennox, the 2nd Duke of Richmond, who was surely the greatest of the old-time patrons. His pal William Gage had died in 1744. The loss of these patrons impacted the game's finances, and it's a fact that the number of top-class matches reduced for some years to come, although economic difficulties arising from the wars of the period certainly inhibited many potential investors.

It's often been said that Fred died as a result of being struck by a cricket ball. He may well have been hit by one, but it didn't kill him. The cause of his death was either a burst abscess in a lung, or a pulmonary embolism. Cricket has had more than its share of fatalities, but Prince Frederick Louis wasn't one of them.

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