Archie MacLaren - Early Life

Early Life

MacLaren was born on 1 December 1871 in Whalley Range, a fairly prosperous district of Manchester. He was the second of seven sons born to James MacLaren and Emily Carver. His father, a cotton merchant in Manchester, was a keen cricket enthusiast who served as treasurer to Lancashire County Cricket Club from 1881 until he died in 1900. MacLaren senior encouraged his sons to play cricket; he and his wife frequently took Archie and his older brother James to watch Lancashire play at Old Trafford. The family frequently practised together in their garden, and by the age of seven, Archie wanted to be a cricketer. With the aim of improving his sons' cricket, MacLaren senior sent Archie and James to Elstree School, a school well-regarded for its cricket coaching.

While at Elstree, MacLaren was coached by coaches at the school and, during the holidays, professionals at Old Trafford whom his father paid to bowl at him. He quickly reached the school's cricket team, scored his first century, and was the captain by his final year. From Elstree, MacLaren went to Harrow School in 1886; he joined James, and Geoffrey, their younger brother later followed them—financial difficulties in the family prevented any of the youngest brothers from attending the school. Despite his reputation, MacLaren had little success in intra-school cricket during his first year at Harrow but by 1887, his second summer, success in trial games resulted in his promotion to the school first eleven. A century in an early game meant that he retained his place for the prestigious fixture against Eton College at Lord's Cricket Ground. Although an inexperienced Harrow team were easily defeated, MacLaren top-scored in both innings with scores of 55 and 67, and in praising his batting, critics suggested he had a bright future.

MacLaren came top of the school batting averages in 1887, with an average of 27.91, but was less successful in the following two years; he averaged 9.43 with the bat in 1888 and 14.67 in 1889. Wet weather in both years affected the pitches on which MacLaren played, making them slow and difficult to bat on. As MacLaren had little experience in such conditions, he had a succession of failures. His technique, based at the time on playing forward to the ball, was unsuited to wet pitches and it was only late in 1889 that he made the required technical adjustments and learned to play off the back foot. During 1890, his final year at Harrow, he captained the team and had his most successful season, scoring over 500 runs at an average of 42.54. In the match against Harrow at Lord's, MacLaren once more succeeded when others struggled, and he scored 76 on a wet, difficult pitch. In his four years at Harrow, MacLaren was twice awarded the prize for the school's best batsman, and also received awards for his fielding in his last three years. In other sports, he captained his House team at football and played for the school team in 1888 and 1889; a knee injury kept him out of the team in his final year. In contrast to many other schoolboy and prominent amateur cricketers, MacLaren did not attend University. While many of MacLaren's contemporaries played for Oxford or Cambridge Universities, his father could not afford to send him or his brothers to attend. Instead, upon leaving Harrow, MacLaren went to work for the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank.