English cricketer and inventor
Frederick Collier Christy (9 September 1822 – 17 September 1909) was an English first-class cricketer and inventor.
The son of John Christy and his wife Sarah De Horne, Christy was born at Aperfield in Kent in September 1822.[1] He was employed by J. and G. Rennie for a time in 1845.[1] The following year he made his debut in first-class cricket for the Surrey Club against Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's.[2] He made a further first-class appearance for the Surrey Club in 1848 in a repeat of the 1846 match.[2] By 1858 he had emigrated to Victoria, where he worked for the Victorian Railways as a chief mechanical engineer.[1] He married Caroline Smith Wells at Williamstown in 1861.[1] H. H. Stephenson toured Australia with a team the following year. A first-class match was arranged between a Surrey XI and The Rest of the World at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with Christy playing for the Surrey XI.[2] In 1869, he sent a patent request to the Patent Office in London for his invention of "improvements in the construction of axle-boxes for railway carriages and other vehicles."[3] He moved to Japan in April 1871 to work for the Japanese Government Railways as a locomotive superintendent,[1] in what was its first year of operation. He worked in Japan for five years, returning to Australia in 1876.[1] He died at South Yarra in September 1909.[1]
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