Ivo Francis Walter Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley, DL (born 13 March 1859 in London, died 10 April 1927 in Shorne, Kent), known earlier in his life as The Honourable Ivo Bligh, was a cricketer who captained the English team in the first ever Test series against Australia with the Ashes at stake in 1882/83. Later in life, he inherited the Earldom of Darnley and was elected an Irish representative peer.

Although the history of test cricket between England and Australia dates from 1877, it was after an English team led by Monkey Hornby lost to the Australians at The Oval in 1882, that The Sporting Times newspaper wrote a mock obituary to English cricket, noting that the body would be cremated and the ashes sent to Australia. The following winter's tour to Australia was billed as an attempt to reclaim the Ashes. Bligh's team was successful, winning the three-match Ashes series two-one, although a fourth game, not played for the Ashes, and hence a matter of great dispute, was lost.

A small terracotta urn was presented to the England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women after England's victory in the Test series. The urn is reputed to contain the ashes of a veil, ball, bail or, indeed, an old Aboriginal cricketer, symbolising "the ashes of English cricket". While the urn has come to symbolise the Ashes series, the term "The Ashes" pre-dates the existence of the urn. The urn is not used as the trophy for the Ashes series, and, whichever side "holds" the Ashes, the urn remains in the MCC Museum at Lord's. Since the 1998/99 Ashes series, a Waterford crystal trophy has been presented to the winners.

Ivo is commemorated by a poem inscribed on the side of the urn:

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.

Bligh also played for Cambridge University and Kent County Cricket Club in a first-class cricket career which lasted from 1877 to 1883. He was president of the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1900 and of Kent County Cricket Club in 1892 and 1902.

In 1900, he became the eighth Earl of Darnley after the death of his father.

He married Florence Rose Morphy, daughter of John Stephen Morphy, of Beechworth, Victoria, Australia in 1884.^[1] Florence Morphy had been a music teacher at Rupertswood, where Bligh and the amateur gentlemen tourists, had stayed during his tour of Australia. It was she who presented the urn to Lords after Bligh's death.

Notes

See also

• History of Test cricket (to 1883)

External links

• Cricinfo page on Hon. Ivo Bligh
• CricketArchive page on Ivo Bligh

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