The RevdEdward Thomas Pereira (26 September 1866 – 25 February 1939) was anEnglish Catholicpriest andschoolmaster, who playedfirst-class cricket between 1895 and 1900 forWarwickshire and theMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC).[1][2]
Born atColwich,Staffordshire, to Eduardo Pereira (1817–1872) andthe Hon.Margaret Stonor (1839–1894),[3] he attendedthe Oratory School at Edgbaston. Influenced byCardinal Newman, Pereira then became aRoman Catholicpriest and schoolmaster.[4] By 1910, Pereira washeadmaster of the Oratory School and was in charge at the time of its move from Birmingham toCaversham, nearReading, where his family had owned property. He retired from the headmastership in 1930, being named asWarden in 1934, but was forced by ill health to retire toBirmingham Oratory in 1935[4] and died atEdgbaston,Warwickshire in 1939.
As acricketer, Pereira was aright-handedmiddle order batsman; he also bowled right-arm fast, but only bowled two overs in first-class cricket.[1] He played five times forWarwickshire in 1895 and 1896 and his best batting came in his first match, the game againstKent, when he top-scored with 34 in Warwickshire's first innings and made 24, just one behindWillie Quaife's 25, in the second.[5] Against the1896 Australians, Pereira was praised for his fielding, being rated as the finest fielder atpoint that the Australians had encountered.[4] He played two games forMCC in 1900: in the first of these, he captained a team includingSir Arthur Conan Doyle against aLondon County side captained byDr W. G. Grace.[6]
His elder brother wasGeorge Pereira, the soldier and explorer, and his younger brother wasSir Cecil Pereira, also a distinguished soldier; both brothers were promotedgenerals.[7]