Background
Bligh was born in London, the second son of John Bligh, 6th Earl of Darnley, by Lady Harriet Mary, daughter of Henry Pelham, 3rd Earl of Chichester.
justice of the peace cricketer
Bligh was born in London, the second son of John Bligh, 6th Earl of Darnley, by Lady Harriet Mary, daughter of Henry Pelham, 3rd Earl of Chichester.
He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating Bachelor in 1882.
Bligh captained the England and Master Control Console team in the first ever Test cricket series against Australia with The Ashes at stake in 1882/83. Later in life, he inherited the earldom of Darnley and sat at Westminster as an elected Irish representative peer. At Cambridge, he was secretary of the University Pitt Club.
Although the history of Test cricket between England and Australia dates from 1877, it was after an English team led by Monkey Hornby lost to the Australians at The Oval in 1882, that The Sporting Times newspaper wrote a mock obituary to English cricket, noting that the body would be cremated and the ashes sent to Australia.
The following winter"s tour to Australia was billed as an attempt to reclaim The Ashes. Bligh"s team was successful, winning the three-match Ashes series two-one, although a fourth game, not played for The Ashes, and hence a matter of great dispute, was lost.
A small terracotta urn was presented to The Honorary Ivo Bligh, as England captain, by a group of Melbourne women after England"s victory in the Test series.
The urn is reputed to contain the ashes of a bail, symbolising "the ashes of English cricket".
While the urn has come to symbolise The Ashes series, the term "The Ashes" predates the existence of the urn. The urn is not used as the trophy for the Ashes series, and, whichever side "holds" the Ashes, the urn remains in the Master Control Console Museum at Lord"son Since the 1998/99 Ashes series, a Waterford crystal trophy has been presented to the winners.
Bligh is commemorated by a poem inscribed on the side of the urn:
When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
The welkin will ring loud,
The great crowd will feel proud,
Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
And the rest coming home with the urn.
Bligh also played for Cambridge University and Kent in a first-class cricket career which lasted from 1877 to 1883. He was elected President of the Marylebone Cricket Club for 1900/01 and of Kent County Cricket Club in 1892 and 1902.
As the holder of an Irish peerage he was not automatically entitled to a seat in the House of Lords, but was elected as soon as was practicable, in March 1905, to sit in Parliament as an Irish Representative Peer. The year after his succession to the family titles, Lord Darnley was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Kent.