John Shannon Munn

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John Munn
Bowler
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1900–1901Oxford University
Career statistics
Competition FC
Matches 10
Runs scored 55
Batting average 9.16
100s/50s 0/0
Top score 13*
Balls bowled 1,276
Wickets 24
Bowling average 29.62
5 wickets in innings 0
10 wickets in match 0
Best bowling 4/39
Catches/stumpings 2/–
Source: ESPNCricinfo, 1 Jan. 2015

John Shannon Munn (6 June 1880 – 24 February 1918) was a prominent early-20th-century

Newfoundlander. The step-son of Sir Edgar Bowring, he rose to become managing director of Bowring Brothers, but died in the wreck of the SS Florizel in 1918, along with his three-year-old daughter, Betty. Munn had also been a talented cricketer in his youth, and is one of the few Newfoundlanders to play at first-class level, having played in England for Oxford University
.

Family and early life

John Shannon Munn was born in 1880 in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, into a prominent local family. The company established by his Scottish-born grandfather, John Munn, owned several boats in Newfoundland's sealing and fishing fleets, and also owned Harbour Grace's newspaper and main store. Following the elder Munn's retirement in 1878, his son (John Shannon Munn's father), William Panton Munn, assumed management of the company together with his cousin, Robert Stewart Munn. William Munn died in 1882 and his widow, born Flora LeMessurier Clift, remarried in 1888 to Edgar Rennie Bowring, scion of another merchant family.[1]

Bowring (later Sir Edgar) later became a director at

Forest School, a public school in Walthamstow, Essex.[1]

Cricket

Cricket had become reasonably popular in Newfoundland by the late 19th century, but died out following the First World War. Munn was likely introduced to the sport on the island, and continued playing at the Forest School, where he was a regular in the school first XI. In his last season at the school, in 1899, he took 55 wickets at an average of 13.96. Wisden, in its coverage of public schools cricket, noted especially his performance against Epsom College, where he took a five-wicket haul and scored a half-century to help Forest School to a 220-run victory.[1]

Going on to

Tip Foster, a future England
captain. He took the wickets of four top-order batsmen in Somerset's first innings, finishing with 4/53. [3] Munn played three further matches during the 1900 season, against Worcestershire at Oxford, Surrey at The Oval, and the MCC at Lord's.[2] He finished the season with 13 wickets at an average of 16.76, including another four-wicket haul, 4/39 against Worcestershire.[4] That performance was to be his best at first-class level.[5]

Despite his earlier performances, Munn failed to make the Oxford team for the

annual match against the University of Cambridge. Instead of playing for a County Championship side later in the season, like many of his teammates, he returned to Newfoundland for the rest of the summer. There, Munn played in the local St. John's league. In late August 1900, he turned out for a St. John's representative side in two games against an I Zingari team from Boston. He took figures of 8/17 in the second of those matches, which was attended by around 1,200 people.[1] Back at Oxford for the 1901 season, Munn performed poorly in pre-season trial matches, but was in the first XI for Oxford's third first-class fixture of the season, against Surrey in late May.[2] Usually batting at number eleven, following a series of not out innings, he was promoted to open the batting in a second fixture against Surrey, played in late June.[6] He scored only 11 runs, and was back at number eleven for the next match, against Sussex.[7] Unlike the previous season, Munn was selected for the 1901 Oxford–Cambridge fixture, played at Lord's.[2] In the match, which was to be his last at first-class level, he took only a single wicket,[8] finishing his season with 11 wickets from six games.[4]

Munn returned to Newfoundland at the end of 1901, having never graduated from Oxford, or received his

Stuart Pitts, who briefly played for Middlesex.[12]

Later life and death

John Munn's three-year-old daughter, Betty, died with him in the wreck of the SS Florizel.

Having risen to become a director of his step-father's company, in January 1908 Munn married Alice May McGowen, the daughter of

governor of Newfoundland. The couple had one daughter together, Elizabeth Shannon Munn (known as Betty), born in 1914.[13]

statue of Peter Pan erected in Bowring Park
, St. John's.

Aged 34, Munn was too old to enlist during the First World War, but served as treasurer of a committee established to fund the volunteer

Cappahayden. Munn, his daughter, and her nurse were killed, along with 91 others.[1][13]

After the deaths of his granddaughter and step-son, Sir Edgar Bowring commissioned several memorials in their honour. John Munn was commemorated by a stained-glass window at St. Thomas' Anglican Church, St. John's, as well as a park in Harbour Grace (Shannon Park) and new facilities for a St. John's orphanage (renamed the Shannon Munn Memorial).

statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, London, made by sculptor George Frampton from his original.[16] The replica, standing in Bowring Park, St. John's, was unveiled in August 1925, inscribed "In memory of a dear little girl who loved the Park".[17] Frampton believed the St. John's statue to be superior to the Kensington Gardens original, as "the wholly natural surroundings and flowing river [were] more in keeping with the spirit of Peter".[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i David Liverman. "John Shannon Munn" – Cricket Newfoundland and Labrador. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d First-class matches played by John Munn (10) – CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  3. ^ Oxford University v Somerset, University Match 1900 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  4. ^ a b First-class bowling in each season by John Munn – CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  5. ^ a b John Munn – CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  6. ^ Surrey v Oxford University, University Match 1901 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  7. ^ Sussex v Oxford University, University Match 1901 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  8. ^ Oxford University v Cambridge University, University Match 1901 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  9. ^ William Bowring – CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  10. ^ Frank Bowring – CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  11. ^ England / Players / John Munn – ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  12. ^ Stuart Pitts – CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  13. ^ a b Collection Offers Glimpses of St. John's Society – Memorial University of Newfoundland's Archival Treasures. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  14. ^ THE S.S. FLORIZEL: BOWRING TIMELINE Archived 8 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine – Admiralty Museum. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  15. ^ THE S.S. FLORIZEL: THE FLORIZEL STORY Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine – Admiralty Museum. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  16. ^ Paul Russell (29 August 2005). "Memorial to a girl who never grew up" – The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  17. ^ Bert Riggs (24 June 1998). "Bowering: The Man and the Park" – The Evening Telegram. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  18. ^ Bowring Park: The History – nfld.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
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