Lionel Palairet - Early Life

Early Life

Lionel Palairet was born in Grange-over-Sands, a popular seaside resort in Lancashire, on 27 May 1870. He was the eldest of five children born to Henry Hamilton Palairet and Elizabeth Anne Bigg. His father, of Huguenot ancestry, was five times archery champion of England, and a keen cricketer who made two first-class appearances in the late 1860s. Palairet was educated first at the Reverend S. Cornish's School in Clevedon, Somerset, where he once took seven wickets in seven successive deliveries, and then at Repton School. At Repton he developed a reputation as an all-round sportsman: he broke the school's running records in the two-mile, mile and half-mile distances, and played cricket in the school's first eleven for four years. Palairet played in the school eleven from 1886 to 1889, captaining the team in his final two years. In 1889, he was adjudged the school's second best sportsman, trailing only C. B. Fry. During his final year at Repton, he had a batting average of over 29, and took 56 wickets at an average of under 13.

Some of Palairet's early success can be attributed to his father, who paid the professionals Frederick Martin and William Attewell, both later Wisden Cricketers of the Year, to bowl at his two sons during the Easter holidays, to help them prepare for the upcoming cricket season. During the later part of the 1889 season, Palairet made his first appearances for Somerset County Cricket Club. At the time, Somerset were a second-class county, and their fixture list that summer was against a variety of first- and second-class opposition. Although a Lancastrian by birth, his family home was at Cattistock in Dorset, and it was in the south west that he chose to play his cricket, qualifying for Somerset on the basis of residence. On completion of his studies at Repton, he attended Oriel College, Oxford.