Monday, July 10, 2006

Thomas Keay Tapling

A little local history from my files:

Leicestershire MP and cricketer's £10 million stamp collection celebrates one hundred years on display.

One of the world's greatest stamp collections - The Tapling Collection, donated by nineteenth-century cricketer and MP Thomas Keay Tapling - celebrates one hundred years on exhibition on October 5th.

Thomas Tapling was a wealthy Victorian businessman, running the family carpet making business along with his duties as MP for the Harborough Division in Leicestershire from 1886-1891. He was also a first-class cricketer, turning out for Trinity College, Cambridge, Trinity College Long Vacation Club and Cambridge University Long Vacation Club. In 1886 he also played for M.C.C against Cambridge University. His cricketing prowess also took him on tour to India and Ceylon with G.F. Vernon's side in 1889, a tour that did much to to advance interest in cricket in the region.

Tapling was Tory MP for Harborough. He died at the age of 35 at Gumley Hall. The subsequent by-election was won for the Liberals by my hero J. W. "Paddy" Logan, and they held the seat until 1918.

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