Portrait of Tom Kendall

Birthday profile

Tom Kendall

Tom Kendall, Australian cricketer and journalist (died 1924)

Born
August 24, 1851
Died
August 17, 1924
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1851

About Tom Kendall

Thomas Kingston Kendall (24 August 1851 – 17 August 1924) was an Australian cricketer, who played in two Test matches in 1877, including the inaugural Test which was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877. Kendall was a lower-order left-handed batsman and a slow-to-medium pace left-arm bowler. His 14 wickets in the first two Tests show his ability and indeed Kendall's 7/55 in the last innings of the first-ever Test was an important part of the 45-run victory over the England side led by James Lillywhite. It was Kendall's bowling that induced the first Test match stumping, when he dismissed Alfred Shaw, via Jack Blackham's wicketkeeping. Both he and Shaw took eight wickets in the inaugural Test, but as Australia batted first Shaw took his first, but Kendall overtook this in the Second Test and his 14 Test wickets remained a (retrospective) record until passed by Fred Spofforth. It is not clear why he was omitted from the subsequent Australian team to tour England in 1878, a tour he was available for: he took part in some preliminary matches before the team was selected, although, according to Spofforth, Kendall gained a considerable amount of weight, which may have worked against him. Kendall played in Melbourne club cricket for Richmond, and represented Victoria once. In 1881, he moved to Hobart where he was employed as a compositor by The Mercury newspaper. Tasmania did not have regular first-class cricket at that point and his subsequent cricket career was limited to four matches on a tour to New Zealand in 1884 and one against Victoria in 1889. He later stood as an umpire in Tasmanian cricket.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Tom Kendall was born

Tom Kendall was born in 1851. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1851

  • Best-selling bookMoby-Dick by Herman Melville

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineGreat Exhibition in London — first World's Fair
  • Technology milestoneIsaac Singer patents practical sewing machine
  • World population~1.31B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderMillard Fillmore
  • U.S. population23.8M

1851 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Tom Kendall's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18512026
Population23.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, ESPNcricinfo, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.