Harry Trott - Personal Life

Personal Life

Trott spent his entire working life in the Post Office, employed as a postman and mail sorter. He married Violet Hodson in Fitzroy on 17 February 1890 and the couple had one son. In 1911, Trott became a selector for the Victorian team when Hugh Trumble resigned to take the secretaryship of the Melbourne Cricket Club. Trott's high standing in the cricket community saw the other candidate for the position withdraw rather than oppose him. In 1912, Trott took the side of the "Big Six", the Australian cricketers opposed to the newly formed Australian Board of Control for International Cricket's attempt to wrest control of touring Australian sides from the players. At an "indignation meeting" at the Athenaeum Hall on Collins Street in Melbourne, the Argus reported Trott as saying that "to say he was disgusted with the Board of Control was to put it mildly" and that "e would like to shake hands with the six men who had stood out against the Board".

At the age of 51, Trott died of Hodgkin's lymphoma, at his home in inner-suburban Albert Park on 9 November 1917. He was buried at Brighton Cemetery where, two years later, a large monument was erected over his grave, paid for by the Victorian Cricket Association and cricket enthusiasts. His great-grandson, Stuart Trott, played 200 games for St Kilda and Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League between 1967 and 1977. The South African-born English cricketer Jonathan Trott says he is a distant relation to Harry and Albert Trott.

Trott's role in Australian cricket was recognised by the clubs for which he had played. Until 2005, Trott's club team, South Melbourne Cricket Club was based at Harry Trott Oval in Albert Park, while Bendigo United Cricket Club, for whom Trott played in 1902, still play at the Harry Trott Oval in the Bendigo suburb of Kennington.