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His wife, Ellen Bannerman, died in 1895 and was burred at Waverley Cemetery. At the time their address was given as 12 Seymour Place, Surry Hills.

Charles Bannerman then married for a second time to Mary Ann King (1865 - 1936) (daughter of Jeremiah and Ann King) at Sydney in 1900. He had two further children with Mary Ann:

According to the New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages index, Charles Joseph was born at Sydney in 1887, while Lilly Bannerman was born at Redfern in 1889, which both predated the death date of Charles Bannerman's first wife Ellen. It might be assumed that Charles and Ellen were estranged, and that Charles had formed a relationship with Mary Ann. Divorce was quite difficult to obtain in those days and anyway the Bannermans do not appear in the Index to Divorce in NSW. Perhaps they waited a decent time after Ellen's death to formalise their relationship with marriage in 1900, either way, had it been public knowledge, this would have been seen as either scandalous or courageous!

Cricket Career
Charles Bannerman joined Warwick Cricket Club in Sydney and was trained by a former Surrey cricketer William Caffyn. He became a professional player and made his debut for the New South Wales colony against Victoria in 1871. With Nat Thompson, Bannerman opened the innings at Melbourne on 17 March 1877 when the Australian combined eleven met the English team captained by James Lillywhite. This tour was the first to be played on level terms between the two countries and is regarded as the inauguration of the Test matches.

In that "first" test match Bannerman scored the first century ever recorded in Test cricket. At the end of the first day he was not out 126 in a total of 166 for 6 wickets, and next day when he retired hurt his score of 165 and was mainly responsible for Australia's victory by 45 runs. No one else on the side made more than 20 in either innings. This firmly established Bannerman's reputation as a great cricketer.

He was in the first representative Australian side to visit England in 1878 where he scored a total of 723 at an average of 24. His score of 133 at Leicester was the first century by an Australian in England. Illness, which was not diclosed, prevented him from playing competitive cricket again. He also made centuries in games he played in the United States, and New Zealand. He later coached in Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand and also became a cricket umpire.

In his later years Bannerman became an identity at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where he had his special place of outlook from the members' stand, in a corner where old players congregated. In his long life he had seen and met every man in an Australian Eleven who had played on the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Many Cricket Firsts
Despite his relatively short career as a test cricketer, Charles Bannerman, because of the accident of history of him being at the beginning of Test Cricket, and also because he was a very good sportsman, is credited with achieving many firsts:

• He aced a first ball and scored first runs in test cricket. The first Test was played in March 1877 between England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Batting first, Bannerman was the opening batsman for Australia along with Nat Thomson. He was the first cricketer to score the first runs in international cricket while Thomson got out at the score of one.

• He scored the first fifty, the first century and first 150 in Tests. In the first innings of the first Test, Bannerman scored a century and was the only one from the Australian side to go past the score of 20. He ended up scoring 165 by facing 285 minutes on the field. His hundred was obviously very special in cricket history as it was the first. His fifty, hundred and 150 were the firsts in the history of international cricket.

• He was the first batsman to be retired hurt. Bannerman dominated the first day of the Test and continued until shortly after lunch as he was injured very badly and had to retire hurt. It was a throw from England bowler George Ulyet which split his middle finger of the right hand. Bannerman remained unbeaten at the score of 165 as he was retired hurt. He was also probably the first cricketer to be injured in an international cricket match while playing.

• Record still under Bannerman’s name: His score of 165 helped Australia score 245 against England and after calculating the percentage of runs contributed by Bannerman in Australian total, it meant that 67.3% runs were scored by him out of the team total of 245. It is still the record for scoring the highest percentage of runs out of the team total in a Test innings. Next to him is Michael Slater who scored 123 out of Australia’s 184 (66.85%) in 1999 against England at Sydney.

• First batsman to hit more than 15 fours in an innings: In his score of 165, Bannerman hit 18 boundaries. Thus, he was the first batsman to hit 15 or more boundaries in an innings. His tally of 18 boundaries in an innings stood till 1884 after Billy Murdoch of Australia broke it by hitting 24 fours in an innings against England at The Oval.

• Most runs by an Australian batsman in his debut Test: His score of unbeaten 165 in his debut Test is still unbroken by any Australian player. Archie Jackson came close to breaking this record in 1929 but fell short by two runs to equal his tally of 165 on debut by an Australian.

Charles Bannerman, 20 August 1930
at the Sydney Cricket Ground with Donald Bradman
who scored 452 not out in the Sheffield Shield against Queensland

Alec Bannerman: the "Stonewaller"

Alec Bannerman

Charles' younger brother Alec Bannerman, often referred to as " Australia's champion stone-waller" because of his ability to stay at the crease and slowly and methodically build up runs, no matter what was bowled at him, was as famous as his brother in his time, and perhaps achieved more in the sport, if only because of his longer career. In Australia's second innings in the Test at Sydney, in 1891, he occupied the creases 7 1/2 hours for 91 runs, and exhibited such patience and carefulness that on one occasion the English fieldsmen clustered close round him. Seeing this, a wag in the crowd called out. "Take care Alec., or W.G. [Grace] will have his hand in your pocket." He was known as 'Little Alec', because he was so unlike his brother; he was 5 ft 5 ins (165 cm) tall. His careful defensive style was in marked contrast to his brother's free style of batting. He was also a very good fieldsman and a fair medium round arm bowler. He represented Australia in six tours of England and in all his Tests averaged 23.08 with 1108 runs in 50 innings. In 1883 Alec made his highest Test score in Sydney when he made 94 runs. In his last visit to England in 1893 he scored 133 in the record total which his side made against Oxford and Cambridge Universities Past and Present. He made six centuries in first-class cricket. He had married Mary Anne, nee Merrifield; they had no children. He died at his home at 12 Albion Street, Paddington on 19 September 1924, aged 65. and was buried at Waverley Cemetery. He was said to have been a big influence on the career of the great Victor Trumper, perhaps testified by the fact that Trumper and his father witnessed Alec's will.

"Dick" Bannerman
Charles Joseph Bannerman, Charles' son, who was usually known as "Dick Bannerman" learnt his craft of groundsman at the Sydney Cricket Ground. In his younger days, he played for the Paddington and the Sydney District Cricket Clubs. He was described as a stylish and successful batsman, but gave away playing cricket to concentrate on his duties at Sydney Cricket Ground. By the later 1920s, he was the head groundsman for Coogee Oval, which he kept in order, earning praise for its appearance.

He married Lucy Florence O'Brien (1887 - 1957) at Sydney in 1907. According to Sydney Sands Directory of 1932, he lived in a house at 65 Bream Street, Coogee (which was later demolished and now forms part of an apartment block). Dick and Lucy had five children:

Their son Alexander made the news in February, 1933 when his anxious parents contacted Randwick Police because the then 16 year old in company with another boy, William Edward Dalton, 14 of Arden Street, Coogee, left notes in their homes saying that they were "sick of school" and intended to ride on ponies to Victoria where they would find work on farms.

Dick died at Coogee on 2nd April, 1966 aged 79, the same age his father had died. His wife Lucy died aged 70 in 1957.

Charles Bannerman's Death Charles Bannerman senior died on 20th August 1930 aged 79. A good innings as they say in cricket. He had been ill for several weeks at his home at 26 Chapman Street, Surry Hills, but on Tuesday felt better, and went for a walk. The next day, he watched the events at the Kensington Racecourse, and later in the afternoon, while at a tram stop at the corner of Flinders Street and Moore Park Road, Moore Park, suddenly collapsed. He was pronounced dead at Sydney Hospital. Many veteran cricketers and people prominent in other sports attended the funeral at Randwick General Cemetery. One of the many floral tributes was in the shape of a cricket bat made of flowers. He was buried in the Church of England Section FF, plot 29. His second wife Mary Anne died at her daughters' and son-in-laws' home at 69 Melody Street, Coogee on November 30, 1936. (See Note 2) After a funeral at St. Brigid's Catholic Church, Coogee, she was buried in the same grave as her husband at Randwick General Cemetery, although in her case records say it is in the Roman Catholic section, but is in fact the same Anglican grave as her late husband.

Bannerman grave at Randwick General Cemetery

References

Note 1: Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last for up to five days. The two matches between the Australian XI and the English team led by James Lillywhite resulted in a win by each team. They were only recategorised as "Test Matches" later.

Note 2: No. 69 Melody Street is a block of apartments near the corner of Melody Street and Coogee Bay Road called "Carnarvon". It first appears in the Sands Sydney Directory in 1931. With its entrance framed by two pillars, it evokes neo-classical revivalist architecture from the 1930s.

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