Queensland cricket’s ultimate swinger and the priestly sex case

Arthur Coningham was Queensland’s first Test cricketer – and also a conman. He took a wicket with his first ball and then caused even more of a sensation in a divorce case when he accused his wife of adultery with a Catholic priest.

CRICKET has produced some remarkable characters, though none more colourful than Queensland’s first Test player, the shyster Arthur Coningham.

He was a left-arm swing bowling all-rounder who took a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket and then caused even more of a sensation in a divorce case when he accused his wife of adultery with a Catholic priest.

Coningham was born in Melbourne in 1863 and after starring as a young cricketer there came to Brisbane to work as a chemist in a Charlotte Street pharmacy. He played cricket for Brisbane’s Stanley Club and was also a champion pigeon shooter, footballer and billiards player.

He was named in the Australian cricket team to tour England in 1893 and married English-born Alice Dowling in Sydney on the day the boat left.

Cricketer Arthur Coningham, the first Australian to take a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket in his first and only match against England.

On tour, he was eccentric and unreliable. When he beat the bat of the imperious W.G. Grace he lost his head and sprayed fast balls. He played to the crowds, too, and in Blackpool lit a fire in the outfield to stay warm. A spectator tossed him two hot potatoes.

On a boating excursion with Australian players on the Thames he saw a man drowning and dived in fully clothed to save him. He won a bravery medal just as he had done as a teenager with another rescue in Hobson’s Bay.

Coningham made his Test debut in the second test of the 1894-5 Ashes series in Melbourne. He was given the new ball and with his first delivery enticed Englishman Archie McLaren to spoon it to Harry Trott at point.

When Coningham dismissed Bill Brookwell, England were reeling at 4/26. Somehow they fought back, though, and won the match by 94 runs, with Coningham criticised for his wayward attack.

The 1893 Australian cricket team. Back row (l-r) Robert Carpenter (Umpire), V Cohen (Manager), Affie Jarvis, Walter Giffen, William Bruce, Alick Bannerman, Bob Thoms (Umpire) Middle row (l-r) Harry Trott, Hugh Trumble, George Giffen, Jack Blackham (Captain), Jack Lyons, Bob McLeod, Charles Turner Front row (l-r) Harry Graham, Arthur Coningham, Syd Gregory

He never played for Australia again, though he was cheered by the birth two weeks later of his son Arthur Jr in Cordelia St, South Brisbane.

Soon, the Coninghams opened a tobacconist store in Sydney with money he had won at billiards but his gambling cost his family dearly and within a year he was fainting in bankruptcy court.

By 1899 he was toting a bookie’s satchel bearing the logo ``Coningham the Cricketer’’. He made his biggest gamble in 1901. The Brisbane Courier reported that Coningham, an Anglican, was seeking a divorce from his Catholic wife on the grounds of adultery with the Reverend Dr Denis O’Haran, secretary to Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop. Coningham also wanted £5000 in damages.

In court, Alice claimed that she and the priest had engaged in sex inside St Mary’s Cathedral and that he had fathered her third child Vincent. Coningham and his wife were still sharing a bed, though, and the jury evidently saw the case as a desperate cash grab. Coningham and Alice walked away empty-handed.

They made a fresh start in Auckland but in 1903 Coningham was sentenced to six months’ jail there for stealing from his employer.

Sir Arthur Coningham, the disgraced cricketer’s son, addressing troops in North Africa in 1943.

In 1912, the tables turned and Alice divorced him for adultery.

Coningham battled for the rest of his life before being admitted to Sydney’s Gladesville Mental Hospital in 1937. He died there two years later.

Somehow, his Brisbane-born son Arthur Jr thrived despite the family chaos. He served with New Zealand forces in World War I before joining the Royal Air Force in 1917.

He was knighted during World War II.

Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham disappeared, though, without trace in 1948 along with all 24 fellow passengers and six crew on a flight through the notorious Bermuda Triangle off the eastern coast of the United States.

Grantlee Kieza is the author of Fast and Furious: A Celebration of Cricket’s Pace Bowlers.

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Originally published as Queensland cricket’s ultimate swinger and the priestly sex case