Frederick Thornhill 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 who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire

Derbyshire County Cricket Club

Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...

 in 1876.

Thornhill was born in Beeston, Nottinghamshire

Beeston, Nottinghamshire

Beeston is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is southwest of Nottingham city centre. Although typically regarded as a suburb of the City of Nottingham, and officially designated as part of the Nottingham Urban Area, for local government purposes it is in the borough of Broxtowe, lying outside...

, the son of Richard Thornhill and his wife Eliza Reynolds and became an engine stoker for the Midland Railway

Midland Railway

The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....

. He took part in a cricket match playing for Birmingham in 1866. He made a single appearance for Derbyshire in the 1876 season

Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1876

Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1876 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire played their sixth season.Hampshire replaced Nottinghamshire as the third county to play Derbyshire, together with Lancashire and Kent. Derbyshire also played their first match against an MCC side, which...

, against Lancashire

Lancashire County Cricket Club

Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...

 in June, when he mode no score in either innings.

Just over a month later, Thornhill died at the age of 29 at Toton Sidings

Toton TMD

Toton Traction Maintenance Depot is one of the largest rail depots in the United Kingdom. Toton TMD is bordered by Long Eaton and Sandiacre in Derbyshire and Toton in Nottinghamshire...

, the largest marshalling yards of the Midland Railway.

Thornhill married Elizabeth Bywater in 1867.