Charles Coventry (British Army officer)

Colonel Charles John Coventry, CB (26 February 1867 in Marylebone, London, England – 2 June 1929 in Earl's Croome, Worcestershire, England) was a British Army officer who played cricket for England in the first two Test matches they played against South Africa.

Coventry was the second son of George Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry. He served in the Worcestershire Regiment but was seconded to the Bechuanaland Mounted Police Force from 1888-96..He took part in the Matabeland War of 1893 and the Jameson Raid of 1896 (for which he was briefly imprisoned). He then joined the West African Frontier Force for a short period, but at the same time was also commissioned into the Worcestershire Yeomanry. Coventry took command of the latter during the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. In April 1916 he was captured with many of the regiment at Katia, Egypt, and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Turkey. In 1922 he took command of the re-formed Worcestershire and Oxfordshire Yeomanry Brigade, now serving as 100 Field Brigade, Royal Artillery. He retired from the Yeomanry in 1925.

He played his cricket for Worcestershire when it was still a minor county, that is, a county without first-class status. He was described as "a fair bat with a free style who can hit hard". When the English tour to South Africa in 1888-89 was being put together, because the South Africans were considered weak, weaker players were selected for the English team. Coventry was one of those players selected. England still won the two games against representative South African sides easily, though Coventry did not feature greatly in either game: he batted at number 10 and did not bowl. Coventry played no first-class cricket other than in those two Tests.

Coventry married, in St Peter's Church, Eaton Square, on 16 January 1900, Lily Whitehouse, younger daughter of Mr. FitzHugh Whitehouse, of Newport, USA. His younger son Francis briefly succeeded as 12th Earl of Coventry.