Townsend Warner

The Reverend George Townsend Warner (9 May 1841 – 22 November 1902) was an English clergyman and schoolmaster and a cricketer who played in three first-class cricket matches between 1860 and 1863. He was born at Southampton in Hampshire and died at Torquay in Devon.

Warner's son also called George Townsend Warner (1865-1916) was a house-master at Harrow School and was, for many years, associated with the prestigious Harrow History Prize which was renamed the Townsend Warner History Prize following his death in 1916. His granddaughter was the English poet, writer, and journalist, Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) who was an English novelist, poet and musicologist.

Warner was educated at Harrow School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. As a cricketer, he played as an opening batsman in two matches against Cambridge University: one for the Cambridge Town Club in 1860 and the other for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1863. one of his pupils there was the writer Arthur Quiller-Couch who wrote of him:

From 1895 to his death in 1902 he returned to church work as rector of Alfold, Surrey.

Warner's younger brother William was a much more successful cricketer at Cambridge University.