A Letter from Victor Trumper; and What It Tells Us About the Man
Gordon District Cricket Club | August 01, 2026
With Victor Trumper's death falling on June 28, it is worth pausing to reflect on the kind of man he was away from the cricket field — and perhaps nothing captures that better than a letter he wrote to a schoolboy in February 1913, just sixteen months before his death at the age of 37.
The boy's name was Master Coningsby. We know little about him — perhaps a young admirer who had written to his hero seeking advice, the way boys of that era did, in careful copperplate on good paper. What is remarkable is not that Trumper replied, but the seriousness and warmth with which he did so.
By 1913, Victor Trumper was the most celebrated cricketer in Australia, arguably the world. His batting had been described as an art form. Crowds followed him. Photographers sought him. Yet here he was, sitting down to write a thoughtful, generous letter to a child he had never met.
The letter is worth reading in full:
Dear Master Coningsby,
I am pleased to receive your letter & have to thank you for your kind wishes. 'With Bat and Ball' by Geo Giffen is very interesting & contains valuable advice on the game. In his best days Geo Giffen was the best all round Australian player & his performances are splendid not only from a cricket point of view but as a very strong athlete. Giffen's fore and upper right arm is bigger than Jack Lyons who is both taller & considerably heavier than Giffen. To advance in the game you must lead a good healthy life. Dr WG Grace is still a non smoker. Avoid alcohol for it will tell on a player's constitution sooner or later. When practising watch the ball very carefully in fact never take your eye off it.
When playing in a match keep in your mind's eye the exact position of every fieldsman. To learn fielding join a baseball club. Do not copy any player but when you see him score four off a ball try and score a four off that ball in the same direction but do it in your own way for that will be the natural way for you.
Be very particular not to let sport interfere with your work for sport only lasts for a while whereas your work must keep you in comfort or otherwise just as you treat it. I think that I have given you the ABC. Do not let sport worry you. If it does give it up.
I remain, Yours Faithfully, Victor Trumper
What strikes the reader immediately is the tone — unhurried, personal and completely devoid of self-importance. There is no mention of his own achievements, no suggestion that the boy should model himself on Trumper. Quite the opposite: "Do not copy any player," he writes, "but do it in your own way for that will be the natural way for you." It is advice that speaks to a rare humility in a man who was himself endlessly copied.
The practical wisdom is also striking. Watch the ball. Know where the fieldsmen are. Join a baseball club to improve your fielding. These are not the platitudes of a man going through the motions — they are the observations of someone who had thought deeply about his craft and genuinely wanted to share it.
But it is the final passage that resonates most. Trumper gently reminds the boy that sport is temporary, and that work and character endure. "Do not let sport worry you. If it does, give it up." From the greatest batsman of his generation, those words carry considerable weight — and reveal a man whose values extended well beyond the boundary rope.
Trumper died of Bright's disease on June 28, 1914. He was 37. The letter to Master Coningsby, written in the last summer of his life, is a small but luminous window into a character that those who knew him described as simply without flaw.
