The Death of a Prince
2007-07-19
The MD of my employer's sister-company was just telling an interesting story.
Apparently an ancestor of his once killed the Prince of Wales ('a Prince of Wales' if you prefer, although I suspect the correct form is to use the definite article even if you're not talking about the incumbent) with a cricket ball. Intrigued, I asked which, planning a trip to Wikipedia, and sure enough there is a legend that Frederick, Prince of Wales was killed with a cricket ball.
The claim that he died after a blow to the head with a cricket ball is described as apocryphal (it's not clear which part is disputed), but that needs a citation. Well, as it turns out, Downstairs' MD has the citation: he'd found a reference in Cox's 'The Pelhams' (detail pending, although he says Cox was a contemporary and I think I've established she was called Marjorie) saying (as best he remembers) that
Apparently an ancestor of his once killed the Prince of Wales ('a Prince of Wales' if you prefer, although I suspect the correct form is to use the definite article even if you're not talking about the incumbent) with a cricket ball. Intrigued, I asked which, planning a trip to Wikipedia, and sure enough there is a legend that Frederick, Prince of Wales was killed with a cricket ball.
The claim that he died after a blow to the head with a cricket ball is described as apocryphal (it's not clear which part is disputed), but that needs a citation. Well, as it turns out, Downstairs' MD has the citation: he'd found a reference in Cox's 'The Pelhams' (detail pending, although he says Cox was a contemporary and I think I've established she was called Marjorie) saying (as best he remembers) that
"[Frederick] died from an impostume on the chest, caused by being struck earlier by a cricket ball."I might have a go at verifying that to fix the paragraph in Wikipedia (especially if the research can be done entirely online ;-).
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