Frederick Leney

Frederick Barcham Leney (29 November 1876 – 25 July 1921) was an English brewery executive and amateur cricketer who played one first-class cricket match for Kent County Cricket Club in 1905.[1]

Leney was born at Wateringbury near Maidstone in Kent in 1876 and was educated at Bradfield College where he was in the school cricket and association football teams.[2][3] He played for Kent's Second XI between 1903 and 1906 and played club cricket for Wateringbury Cricket Club, which he captained,[3] The Mote and for MCC.[4] He made his only Kent First XI appearance in 1905 against Oxford University.[4]

Leney's father Augustus had established the Phoenix Brewery at Wateringbury in 1843 and Frederick, the eldest son, went into the family business after leaving school, becoming a Director by 1911.[3][5] At the outbreak of World War I he joined the British Red Cross as a Red Cross Searcher. He served with the organisation in France and Egypt until December 1916 when he was discharged and returned to run the brewery, his father having died in a hunting accident the previous year.[3][6]

Leney died suddenly at the Railway Hotel in Galway in July 1921 aged 44.[3][7][8] His uncle, Herbert, played four first-class matches for Kent.[9] The family business, which had been renamed Frederick Leney & Sons in 1896, was taken over by Whitbread in 1927 and then by Fremlin's Brewery in the 1960s.[10] It operated until 1981, although the site has since been used as a distribution depot for Whitbread.[11][12]