Colonel George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, (3February 185124March 1932), generally known as Lord Harris, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay, best known for developing cricket administration via Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
An English amateur cricketer, from 1870 to 1889, Lord Harris played for Kent and England, captaining both teams. He was President of the Kent County Football Association between 1881 and 1908, as well as serving as a government minister from 1885 to 1900.
Early life
The Honourable George Harris was born at St Ann's, Trinidad, on 3 February 1851, the only son of George Harris, 3rd Baron Harris, and his wife Sarah Cummins, daughter of George Cummins. At the time of his birth, his father was serving as Governor of Trinidad (1846–1854). Harris barely knew his mother who died when he was two years old. In 1854, shortly after her death, the family moved to Madras where his father was posted as Governor. Harris senior retired in March 1859 and returned to England, becoming involved with Kent County Cricket Club as a Committee Member, before, in 1870, being elected Club President.
In 1864, at the age of 13, Harris was sent to Eton College to further his education. Even in old age he was a capable cricketer, scoring a fifty for I Zingari v West Kent in his 71st year and 25 against Philadelphia Pilgrims at Lord's, 53 years after he had made his first appearance at the home of cricket.
Throwing issue
In the early 1880s, there were a number of bowlers who were widely considered to have unfair actions, with the Lancashire pair of Jack Crossland and George Nash coming in for particular criticism. After playing for Kent against Lancashire in 1885, when he faced the "bowling" of Crossland and Nash, Harris decided to take action. He persuaded the Kent committee to cancel the return fixture. Later that season, Crossland was found to have broken his residential qualification for Lancashire by living in Nottinghamshire, and Nash dropped out of the team. The two counties resumed playing each other the following season. Harris's Wisden obituarist wrote: "...there can be no doubt the action of Lord Harris, even if it did not entirely remove the throwing evil, had a very healthy effect on the game."
Administration
thumb|right|upright|alt=Caricature of a tall thin man with a moustache holding a cricket bat|Lord Harris caricatured in [[Vanity Fair (UK magazine)|Vanity Fair.]]
Harris had a long association with Lord's and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) as both player and administrator. In 1862, aged eleven, he was practising at Lord's. It was not till 1929, at the age of 78, that he played there for the last time, representing MCC vs Indian Gymkhana. He was President of MCC in 1895, a Trustee from 1906 to 1916 and Treasurer from 1916 to 1932. Additionally, he was at various times Chairman of both the MCC finance and cricket sub-committees. Through these offices, Harris wielded considerable power in the world of cricket and it was written of him: "No man has exercised so strong an influence on the cricket world so long..."
In July 1909, Harris chaired a meeting of representatives of England, Australia and South Africa which launched the Imperial Cricket Conference and agreed rules to control Test cricket between the three nations. In 1926, he presided at a meeting at The Oval, when it was agreed that "governing bodies of cricket in countries within the Empire to which cricket teams are sent, or which send teams to England" should be eligible for ICC membership. The meeting had the effect of creating three new Test-playing nations: West Indies, New Zealand and India.
Harris was a controversial figure in the world of cricket, revered by cricket's MCC-based establishment but heavily criticised elsewhere. Not all thought that he used his power well. Alan Gibson once wrote that he was "an antediluvian old tyrant", though he later retracted this, saying that Harris was a more complex figure than that.
Political and military career
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Harris was politically active as a member of the Conservative Party, sitting in the House of Lords as Under-Secretary of State for India from 25 June 1885, then as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War from 4 August 1886 to 1890. During the same period, he also worked as Under-Secretary of State for War, 1886–90; then as Vice-Lieutenant for Kent.
Appointed Governor of the Presidency of Bombay in British India from 1890 to 1895, Harris also served in the British Army, being commissioned in the Royal East Kent Regiment, promoted Colonel of the Regiment, before joining the Imperial Yeomanry, 1900–01. Lord Harris was charged with the Sovereign's Sceptre and dove at the Coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra.
<blockquote>I don't see how we can refuse these applicants; but I will steadfastly refuse any more grants once a Gymkhana has been established under respectable auspices by each nationality, and tell applicants that ground having been set apart for their nationality they are free to take advantage of it by joining that particular club.</blockquote>
When Harris left India, having virtually ignored famine, riots and sectarian unrest, a publisher circulated a collection of newspaper extracts from his time as governor. The introduction stated:
Later career
thumb|300px|Memorial to Lord Harris at Canterbury Cathedral
On his return to England, Harris again served in the Conservative Government as a Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria from 16 July 1895 to 4 December 1900.
He was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the Royal East Kent Yeomanry on 6 October 1897. During the Second Boer War, he held a commission as Assistant Adjutant-General for the Imperial Yeomanry from 28 February 1900, until he resigned in April 1901.
Death and family
thumb|250px|Memorial in the Harris Garden at Lord's
In 1874, he married the Honourable Lucy Ada Jervis (died 1930), daughter of Carnegie Robert John Jervis, 3rd Viscount St Vincent.