Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football & Sporting Memorabilia

To be held on Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday
6th, 7th, 8th & 9th August 2026

John Thomas ‘Jack’ Brown. Yorkshire & England 1889-1904. Stoddart’s tour to Australia 1894/95. Original three page folding letter handwritten in ink from Brown to his family while on tour in Australia. Writing from Melbourne, the letter is undated but probably written during the course of the tour match v Victoria around 18th November 1894. He describes the voyage by ship, which he enjoyed, visiting sites en route at Gibraltar, Naples, Port Said and Colombo, with the final leg from Colombo to Perth ‘a bit slow as we were a fortnight and saw nothing but water’, and the heat, ‘we never have anything like it in England’. Regarding the cricket he states ‘We were very much surprised when we got beat at Adelaide... I began very well. I think we shall win our match against Victoria’. He closes by wishing his family ‘a very merry Xmas’ and signs off ‘Yours affectionately, Jack’. Light folds and creasing, otherwise in good/ very good condition.
In the tour matches that Brown describes, A.E. Stoddart’s XI lost to South Australia by six wickets, Brown scoring 115 & 20. They then beat Victoria by 145 runs, Brown scoring 15 and 11. England won the five match Test series against Australia 3-2, winning the first two matches, the opening Test being the first occasion when a side won after being forced to follow-on. Australia won the following two matches so the series was tied 2-2 going into the deciding Test. Chasing 297 to win, Brown went in to bat with the score at 28-2 and scored 140 to help England to a six wicket win and retain the Ashes. His first fifty, achieved in 28 minutes off 34 balls, remains the fastest recorded Test half-century by time.

Back to top