Fred Stedman was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er. A wicket-keeper

Wicket-keeper

The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...

 and tail-end batsman, his first-class

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 career extended from 1899 to 1912. He was noted for protecting his chest with a copy of the South Western Railway

London and South Western Railway

The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...

 timetable when keeping wicket.

He played for Surrey

Surrey County Cricket Club

Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...

 from 1899 to 1908, and he was their first choice of keeper from 1900 to 1902. However Herbert Strudwick

Herbert Strudwick

Herbert Strudwick was an English wicket-keeper...

 then usurped his regular position in the side, and he appeared infrequently thereafter. After the 1908 season he emigrated to Ireland, where he worked as a groundsman at the Woodbrook Cricket Club Ground in Bray. He played in four fixtures on the ground which are rated as first-class, one in 1909 and three in 1912. One of the 1912 games was for Ireland against the touring South Africans. He had also appeared in two games for London County

London County Cricket Club

London County Cricket Club was a short-lived cricket club founded by the Crystal Palace Company. In 1898 they invited WG Grace to help them form a first-class cricket club. Grace accepted the offer and became the club's secretary, manager and captain. As a result, he severed his connection with...

, one in 1900 and one in 1903. He stood as umpire

Umpire (cricket)

In cricket, an umpire is a person who has the authority to make judgements on the cricket field, according to the Laws of Cricket...

 in a single first-class match, Surrey against the touring Philadelphians

Philadelphian cricket team

The Philadelphian cricket team was a team that represented Philadelphia in first-class cricket between 1878 and 1913. Even with the United States having played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844, the sport began a slow decline in the country. This decline was...

 in 1908.

His best year was 1901, when he made 87 dismissals (71 catches, 16 stumpings), all for Surrey. This remained a Surrey record until 1962, when Arnold Long

Arnold Long

Arnold "Ob" Long is a former English first-class cricketer. He played for Surrey between 1960 and 1975, then spent the remainder of his career at Sussex, whom he captained between 1978 and 1980. A wicketkeeper and left-handed batsman, Long claimed 1046 victims from his 452 games over a 20-year...

managed 91.

He died in a railway accident.