George Attfield

George Cooke Attfield (27 January 1826 – 16 January 1925) was an English medical practitioner and first-class cricketer.

Early life and background George Attfield was born at Bath, Somerset. The entry in the Rugby School register for his brother William Attfield, also a cricketer, gives their father as "Rev. W. Attfield, Park-Street", Bath. The Rev. William Attfield, a graduate of Oriel College, Oxford, died at 14 Park Street, Bath in 1861, aged 71; a newspaper report from 1926 confirms he was George's father, and states he played twice for the Gentlemen against the Players. From 1814 he was a curate at St Alkmund, Shrewsbury, and in 1821 he married Mary Anne Cooke, third daughter of S. Cooke of Swan Hill House, Shrewsbury.

Cricket Attfield's batting style is unknown. He made his first-class debut for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against the West of England in 1845 at Cricket Down, Bath. His next first-class appearance came six years later in 1851 for the Surrey Club against the MCC at Lord's, with him making further first-class appearances for the Surrey Club, with two against the MCC in 1855 and a further two against the same opposition in 1855.

Early career Attfield served as a special constable during the bread riots of 1848. He became a medical practitioner, qualifying as a surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, in 1850, and being admitted a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS). In 1852 he qualified as an apothecary. He was for a number of years the medical officer at Millbank Prison. He later became the chief medical officer of prisons in Western Australia. At the gaol, he kept a medical admission register, and compiled a number of reports. He opposed the use of solitary confinement and hard labour, as detrimental to the health of the convicts. The sanitary status of the gaol had been improving in the mid-1850s, in terms of accommodation, but he had some criticisms of his precessor David Rennie, in particular in his perceptions of tuberculosis. The medical historian Bryan Gandevia took a positive view of Attfield's "humane" approach, including exempting those with physical or mental illness from flogging.

In the 1860s and into the 1870s, Attfield took part in cricket matches between Fremantle and Perth, becoming Fremantle's captain and dropping out in 1873. While living in Australia, he was invited to join a touring All England Eleven, but declined the invitation. He owned Bushman, a noted racehorse, and was a steward of the Western Australian Turf Club. He often went shooting on Rottnest Island and its environs. Of the daughters, Maude Cecil married in 1892 Frederick John Paley, physician and son of Frederick Apthorp Paley.