Percival Stacy Waddy

Percival Stacy Waddy (8 January 1875 – 8 February 1937) was an Australian schoolmaster, clergyman and cricketer.

Waddy was born at Carcoar, New South Wales, on 8 January 1875. He was the son of Richard A. Waddy, bank-manager and his wife, a daughter of Dr Stacy, botanist, a woman of ability, charm and force of character. Waddy's paternal grandfather was a general in the British army. Soon after Waddy's birth the family removed to Morpeth, New South Wales on the Hunter River. Going first to the East Maitland Grammar School, Waddy in 1890 went on to his father's old school, The King's School, Parramatta, New South Wales, where he became captain of the school and of the cricket and football teams, won several prizes, and was awarded the Broughton and Forrest scholarships of £100 a year. With Dick Manchee, he played cricket for 'Twenty of Cumberland and District' against Lord Sheffield's visiting English team in December 1891.

In the summer vacation of 1893 he entered at Balliol College, Oxford. He played in the Oxford eleven for two years, read law intending to become a barrister, but in his third year decided to enter the ministry. He took a second class in classical moderations and in jurisprudence and graduated B.A. in 1897, M.A. in 1901; After experience in the east end of London at Oxford House, he was ordained deacon in 1898 and priest in 1899. He was a curate at Bethnal Green from 1898 to 1900, and in December 1900 returned to Australia.

From that time he dropped his first name and was always known as Stacy Waddy. After acting for a short period as curate to Bishop Stretch at Newcastle, New South Wales, he was given the difficult parish of on the other side of the harbour, then much overloaded with debt. Waddy tackled his task with enthusiasm, wrote his first book, a short one on confirmation, Come for Strength, published in London in 1904, and by the middle of the same year had succeeded in paying off the parish debts. His energy was boundless, as in this year he wrote various tracts, gave over 40 lantern lecture averaged over six services a Sunday in his own parish, travelling about 30 miles on his bicycle, became bishop's chaplain and secretary of the clerical society, and also managed to fit in some very successful cricket. In December 1903 at West Maitland against Plum Warner's English eleven which included such well-known bowlers as Hurst, Len Braund, Ted Arnold, Bernard Bosanquet and Fielder, he made 93 and 102. Had he accepted the suggestion that he should get a position in Sydney and play cricket, it is likely that he would have gained a place in the New South Wales eleven.

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