Born in Portuguese Elizabeth, South Africa, Tancred attended Saint Aidan"s College, Grahamstown, where he first displayed his cricketing prowess. He attended the Cape University and although there are no records to indicate that he graduated he practised law throughout South Africa, including Kimberley, Pretoria and Johannesburg.
His contemporaries at school included Percy Fitzpatrick and Charles Coghlan. Tancred continued to star in club cricket, gaining a reputation as the best batsman in South Africa, with a strong defence, as well as an outstanding point fielder. Tancred was an obvious choice for the first South African cricket side, assembled to play the first touring English cricket team during its two Test tour of South Africa in the 1888-1889 South African cricket season.
While the South African cricket team lost both Tests, Tancred"s 87 runs made him the leading South African run-scorer in the series and he became the first batsman to carry his bat in a Test, when he scored an unbeaten 26 of 47 in the second Test at Newlands Cricket Ground.
This innings is still the Test Match record for the lowest score made by a batsman carrying their bat through an innings. He also reinforced his stature in South African cricket and society by founding the Transvaal Cricket Union in 1891 and serving as its foundation chairman.
The increase in tensions in South Africa between the Boers and Uitlanders saw "Captain" Tancred and others guarding the main Pretoria – Johannesburg road. Tancred played his final first class match in February 1899 in the 1898-1899 South African cricket season, representing Transvaal against Lord Hawke"s touring English side but was again unavailable for the Test series due to business concerns.
During the Second Boer War, Tancred worked for British intelligence and then as Legal Adviser to the Military Governor in Bloemfontein, necessitating his absence from the 1901 South African tour of England, which it had been thought he would captain.
While in Salisbury in 1911, Tancred became seriously ill and was brought to Cape Town en route to England to receive specialist treatment but, after a deterioration in his condition, underwent emergency surgery and died in Cape Town the day his ship left for England.
He became a prominent member of the Uitlander community. The following year, Tancred travelled to England possibly to attend a House of Commons inquiry into the Jameson Raid, and, his cricketing fame having preceded him, he was made an honorary member of the Marylebone Cricket Club and turned out for the club against the Derbyshire County Cricket Club. He was also made an honorary member of Surrey County Cricket Club.
