Ashes countdown: The Urn

Date released: 11 July 2009

With six days to go we countdown to the the Ashes Test at Lord's with a great story each day for ten days. Today: a closer look at the Ashes Urn itself.

The story of the urn itself is filled with romance, humour and intruige. Never intended to be a trophy to be fought for the urn resides in the MCC Museum and can be seen on the Official Tour of Lord's.

A history of the 'Darnley Ashes Urn'
by MCC Archivist & Historian Glenys Williams

Standing only 11cm high and made of pottery, the Ashes Urn, displayed in the MCC Museum at Lord’s Cricket Ground is a sporting icon.

The story of the urn begins on 29 August 1882 at the Oval when Australia narrowly defeated a strong England side in what remains one of the most dramatic Test matches ever played.

The Sporting Times' 'obituary' of English cricket This first Australian victory on English soil was considered a national calamity and the following day an obituary notice, written by Shirley Brooks, appeared in the Sporting Times, which read:
In affectionate remembrance of English Cricket which died at the Oval on 29th August 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. RIP. NB. The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.

The famous WG Grace played in the infamous 1882 defeat The obituary, written by the son of the then editor of Punch magazine, was intended to be a something of a joke, as well as a sidelong reference to the heated debate raging in English society about the practice of cremation, whose legitimacy was still being questioned at the time.

This imagery caught the imagination of the cricketing public, both in England and Australia, and, by the time the English team left for Australia later that year their captain, the Hon. Ivo Bligh (later Lord Darnley) was reported to have vowed to "bring home the ashes" of English cricket.

The Australian captain, W.L. Murdoch, had vowed to retain them and the press in both countries were gearing themselves up for the first ever Ashes contest.

The urn appears

Bligh and his squad set to tour Australia in 1882/3 In Australia England were due to play a three-match series against Murdoch’s 1882 touring team.

However, before the first Test even took place a development occurred that was to affect the future history of cricket’s most celebrated fixture.

Over the Christmas period Bligh stayed at the Rupertswood home of Sir William and Lady Clarke in Sunbury, near Melbourne.

Sir William was president of the Melbourne Cricket Club and the English amateurs stayed at his Sunbury mansion during their various engagements in Melbourne.

On 24 December 1882 these eight amateurs played a social game against a side comprising guests and workmen of the Rupertswood estate.

The tiny terracotta urn - which has come to mean so much The game was played very much for the amusement of those taking part and it is believed that it was following this match that Lady Clarke, and a group of her female companions who enjoyed a joke, decided to present the English captain with the very object he had come to Australia to retrieve: A tiny terracotta urn was produced from one of the ladies’ dressing tables and given to Ivo Bligh as a personal gift and memento of his visit.

Starting on 30th December, the first Test, witnessed by a crowd of around 54,000, was a victory for Australia by nine wickets.

The second and third Tests, however, were won by England who thereby clinched the series by two games to one. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that:

"Mr Bligh’s most ardent hopes have been realised, and he has now in his custody the revered ashes of English cricket from which will be rehabilitated the supremacy of the English cricketers."

It would appear that it was at this point, with England victorious, that the same group of Melbourne ladies who had presented the pottery urn to Ivo Bligh held a ceremony to burn one of the bails used in the third match, put the ashes of the bail into the urn and presented it back to the England captain.

Indeed, in support of this view MCC has, in its archive, a copy of an account of the origin of the ashes, written by Lady Darnley, which describes this event occurring after the third Test Match.

Bligh now indeed was in possession of ‘the Ashes’ - both symbolic and actual.

Ashes romance

Alternative claims have been made for the origin of the ashes and it is possible that the England captain was, on his trip around Australia, presented with more than one such token.

What is of importance to the history of the urn that now rests in the MCC Museum at Lord’s is the fact that one of the witnesses to this presentation was Lady Clarke’s friend and companion, Florence Rose Morphy.

Miss Morphy had been introduced to Bligh at Ruperstwood earlier in the tour and they had struck up a friendship.

During Bligh’s numerous stays at Rupertswood this friendship blossomed into a romance and the urn presented to him by Lady Clarke and Miss Morphy had the added value of acting as a reminder of their courtship.

Perhaps Ivo’s poor show during the first two Tests were due to the fact that he had already written home requesting permission to ask for Florence’s hand and he was waiting nervously for a reply.

From this point on the ashes were no longer merely an imaginative concept - they had real physical form - although at this point only a select few knew of the actual existence of the urn.

Having completed their planned three-match series against Murdoch’s team England played a hastily arranged fourth Test against a combined Australian side at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Shortly before this match Bligh wrote to Mrs. Anne Fletcher thanking her for the velvet bag she had made to hold the ashes urn.

The velvet bag is also housed in the MCC Museum Bligh’s note which, together with the bag, is on display in the MCC Museum stated that "...the ashes shall be consigned to it forthwith and always kept there in memory of the great match."

Australia won the match by four wickets. Cricket statisticians continue to debate whether England won the series 2-1 or whether it was a 2-2 draw.

Bligh certainly believed that the honours were even and, at England’s farewell dinner on March 13th, suggested that the ashes should perhaps be buried in a quiet corner of the MCG where they could be forgotten - an indication that he for one did not believe that the ashes joke would continue or, perhaps more importantly, that the gift he had been given by his bride to be was anything other than a personal memento of the tour.

The English professionals left for home almost immediately but the amateurs enjoyed a final stay at Rupertswood.

Before their departure on 27 March Lady Clarke pasted a poem onto the urn - the fourth verse of a comic ode published in the Melbourne Punch on 1 February 1883:

"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."

Ivo stayed on for a further two weeks during which time his engagement to Florence was announced.

Ashes given to MCC

Ivo Bligh returned to Australia in early 1884 and on 9 February he married Florence Rose Morphy at St Mary’s church in Sunbury. Sir William Clarke gave the bride away.

The couple lived in Powlett Street, East Melbourne until 1888 then returned to England where Bligh succeeded, in 1900, to the title of Eighth Earl of Darnley.

Lord and Lady Darnley took up residence in the family home at Cobham Hall in Kent. The ashes urn came with them and was given pride of place in Lord Darnley’s study where they brought back fond memories of his friends in Australia and, in particular, of his courtship of Florence.

Following Lord Darnley’s death in 1927 his widow presented the urn to the Marylebone Club for safekeeping and it is in the MCC Museum that the ashes urn remains.

Even Ashes-winner Michael Vaughan has to admire the urn through the glass case Lord and Lady Darnley considered the urn a personal gift, not a trophy meant to change hands.

Towards the end of his life Lord Darnley realised the importance of his gift and made plans for its future. MCC continues to respect these wishes and to look after this most fragile item of sporting history with the utmost care.