It took almost half a century before a black West Indian scored a century in county cricket after Ollivierre, with Derief Taylor doing so for Warwickshire in 1949 – the year that Ollivierre died.
The next black West Indian to play for Derbyshire was Lawrence Rowe in 1974.
An eye injury is said to have eventually ended Ollivierre’s career with Derbyshire in 1907, although a letter to the editor in the Sheffield Independent in 1909 said that “some have taken exception to his colour” when arguing that “the committee for some stupid reason will not play one of the finest bats in the country”.
After his first-class career, he continued playing club cricket, first with Darley Dale then sides in Yorkshire. He even appeared for Pontefract at the age of 48 in 1924, by which time he was coaching schoolboys’ cricket in the Netherlands.
He died in Pontefract, aged 72, having apparently never grown his family further when in England, and was buried at Fylingdales on the Yorkshire coast.
Short obituaries ran in local newspapers and in Wisden,, external marking the passing of Derbyshire’s West Indian batter whose name and historical importance would fade from public consciousness over time.
Garrey Dennie, an associate professor of history at St Mary’s College of Maryland and former speech writer for Nelson Mandela, is another of Ollivierre’s great, great grandchildren and sees interest in him as “a resurrection”.
“When we speak of the Caribbean cricket history we look at the great Viv Richards, the Garry Sobers, the Clive Lloyds and all these wonderful players who we see as heroes,” Dennie said.
“In fact there is a beginning point, there is a gateway. That gateway starts with Charles Ollivierre.”
