AN ENGLISH SPORTSMAN.
MR. ALBERT RICARDO.
Mr. Albert Ricardo, of Raymead, Maidenhead, opposite Boulter’s Lock, died last month. Mr. Ricardo, who was 89 years of age, had been in ill-health for some years. Born in 1820, he spent the early years of his life in Paris. He was keenly interested in racing in France, and rode in the first steeplechase ever held in that country. Afterwards he raced in the old country, and in 1847 won the Cambridgeshire with The Widow.
A keen cricketer, Mr. Ricardo was an original member of the I. Zingari, which started as a dramatic as well as a cricket club, the members often associating private theatricals with the matches which they played all over the country. Mr. Ricardo captained the Zingaris for twenty years in their annual match on the last day of Ascot Week against the Household Brigade, at Windsor, and he played frequently with the old and famous Maidenhead Cricket Club, in which he always showed consistent form, both as a batsman and in the field. He was also a member of the Windsor Strollers, and for many years acted with them in their autumn plays in Windsor. In the ‘fifties and ‘sixties Mr. Ricardo and his wife—who was a daughter of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt—entertained a great deal in their Maidenhead residence.
From his earliest days Mr. Ricardo had been extremely fond of the river, and only eight or ten years ago took a morning plunge in the Boulter’s weir, however cold the water might be. Indeed he gave up his morning swim only when latterly his infirmities compelled him.
As showing the change that has come over the River Thames, the “South Bucks Free Press” recalls that on a summer Sunday many years ago Mr. Ricardo was the only man out boating who took his skiff round to the lock. A man stopped him, and indignantly asked him whether he knew what day it was, telling him in very plain language his opinion of a person who used the river on Sunday. Where one boat was out on the river in those days thousands now pass through Boulter’s Lock in a season.
Australian Star (Sydney, NSW) : Saturday 20 February 1909, page 7