England
1915-04-04
Andrew Ernest Stoddart, the only man to captain England at both cricket and rugby union and twice an Ashes-winning skipper in the 1890s, shot himself at his St John's Wood home on 4 April 1915. He was 52. His suicide was reported sympathetically in the press and quietly recorded by the inquest as the act of a man in poor health and worse spirits.
England (Stoddart's XI)
1897-12-13
The 1897-98 Ashes tour of Australia, captained by Andrew Stoddart for the second time, became the most personally bleak overseas English tour of the century. News of his mother's death reached him before the First Test; he stood down from the first two Tests and let Archie MacLaren lead. Stoddart returned for the Third and Fourth Tests, made 17, 24, 9 and 25, was barracked at Sydney, and walked off the cricket field for the last time. The tour was the high tide of his unravelling — he died by suicide in 1915.
Australia v England
1894-12-29
Days after the Sydney follow-on miracle, England captain Andrew Stoddart played the innings he later called 'the century of my career' — 173 from 297 minutes at the MCG, taking England 2-0 up in the 1894-95 Ashes. The score remained the highest by an England captain in Australia until Mike Denness passed it 80 years later in 1974-75. Stoddart's tour was the high tide of his cricketing life.