A . E . J . Collins Arthur Edward Jeune " James " Collins ( 18 August 1885 – 11 November 1914 ) , typically now known by his initials A . E . J . Collins , was an English cricketer and soldier . He is most famous for achieving the highest - ever recorded score in cricket : as a 13 - year - old schoolboy , he scored 628 not out over four afternoons in June 1899 . Collins ' record - making innings drew a large crowd and increasing media interest ; spectators at the Old Cliftonian match being played nearby were drawn away to watch the junior school house cricket match in which Collins was playing . Despite this achievement , Collins never played first - class cricket . Collins joined the British Army in 1902 and studied at the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich , before becoming an officer in the Royal Engineers . He served in France during World War I , where he was killed in action in 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres . Collins had been mentioned in dispatches and also represented the Royal Military Academy at cricket and rugby union . Early life and education . Collins was born in Hazaribagh , India , to Arthur Herbert Collins , a judge in the Indian Civil Service , and Mrs Esther Ida Collins . Both of his parents had died by the time he began his education at Clifton College , Bristol , where he held a scholarship . He joined Clifton College in September 1897 , becoming a member of Clark ' s House , although he later moved to North Town House . Clifton had an excellent reputation for sport . W . G . Grace scored 13 first - class centuries on the Close , and he sent his sons to the school . Collins played half - back for the rugby XV , and was also in the cricket XI . He won a bronze medal for boxing at the public schools tournament in Aldershot in 1901 , along with E . A . Hughes and H . P . Hewett . Tim Rice , in a 9 June 1999 article for " The Telegraph " to celebrate the centenary of the score , entitled " On the seventh day AEJ Collins rested " , described him thus : The famous match . In 1899 , as a 13 - year - old schoolboy , Collins scored the highest ever recorded cricket score of 628 not out . This feat took place during a junior school house cricket match between Clarke ' s House and North Town House . Such matches were timeless , played to a finish however long they took . The match was played on an outfield off Guthrie Road , Bristol , now named " Collins ' Piece " . The ground had both a poor surface and a very unusual shape : it was very short ( only long ) , with a wall only away forming the boundary on one side , while the other side was a gentle slope falling away towards the school sanatorium in the distance . The pitch occupied the central of the narrow field , with the boundary only behind each set of stumps . Hits to the long boundary , down the slope , had to be all - run , but the three short boundaries only counted for two runs . The match commenced on Thursday , 22 June , to take advantage of two half - day holidays while the college team played their annual match against Old Cliftonians nearby . Collins , a right - handed batsman , won the toss for Clarke ' s House and chose to bat first . Collins hit his first stroke at around 3 . 30 pm By the close of play at 6 pm , he had scored 200 runs , having been dropped on 50 , 100 and 140 . School lessons allowed another two - and - a - half hours ' play on Friday , 23 June , and by then news of an exceptional innings had gone round the school . So brilliant was his play that even the crowd watching an Old Cliftonian match being played nearby lost its interest and a large crowd watched Collins ' phenomenal performance . Collins ' innings almost ended at 400 when an easy catch was dropped by the youngest player on the field , 11 - year old Victor Fuller - Eberle , but at around 5 . 30 pm , after batting for around five hours , rapturous applause broke out when he passed Andrew Stoddart ' s world - record score of 485 . At the end of the second day , he remained unbeaten on 509 and the team on 680 for 8 . His innings was reported as a world record in " The Times " newspaper on Saturday 24 June ; the paper , however , gave Collins ' s score by the close of play on Friday as 501 , his age as 14 and mis - reported his name as " A . E . " G . " Collins " . The match resumed in the lunch hour on Monday , 26 June , at 12 : 30 pm , with a large crowd . By the end of play , Collins had been dropped again , on 556 , to reach 598 , but another wicket had fallen , and Collins was running out of partners . On Tuesday , 27 June , the school authorities extended the hours available for play in an attempt to finish the match . The crowds grew and media interest escalated , as " The Times " again reported on the match on Tuesday , and the disruption to school life was considerable . Collins hit out , with his approach being described as " downright reckless " . He was dropped twice more , on 605 and 619 . After just 25 minutes ' play , Collins lost his final partner , Thomas Redfern , caught by Victor Fuller - Eberle at point for 13 , with Collins ' score on 628 . Collins had played less than seven hours ' cricket , carrying his bat through his side ' s innings . He had scored 1 six , 4 fives , 31 fours , 33 threes , 146 twos and 87 singles . " The Times " once again ran a report , giving the final figures for Collins ' innings in its Wednesday 28 June edition — once again , however , they misspelled his third initial . North Town House , demoralised , were bowled out for 87 in 90 minutes on Tuesday . The match resumed on Wednesday 28 June , when North Town ' s second innings went even worse , making 61 in just over an hour , so Clarke House won by an innings and 688 runs . Collins showed some ability as an all - rounder , with his right - arm medium pace bowling taking 11 wicket s for 63 runs . The scorebook hangs in the pavilion at Clifton to this day . The scorers faced a difficult task in accurately recording the innings . One of them , Edward Peglar , is said to have remarked that Collins ' s score was " 628 , plus or minus twenty shall we say " . The other scorer for the match was J . W . Hall , whose father in 1868 had batted with Edward Tylecote , who later played Test cricket for England and whose name is on a poem kept with the Ashes urn . Tylecote had earlier set a world - record score of 404 not out in 1868 , also at Clifton . Hall later wrote that " The bowling probably deserved all the lordly contempt with which Collins treated it , sending a considerable number of pulls full pitch over the fives courts into the swimming baths to the danger of the occupants . " Collins became public property for a long while after the match , forever associated with his great score . " Today all men speak of him , " wrote one newspaper , " … he has a reputation as great as the most advertised soap : he will be immortalised . " After leaving school , he never wanted to be reminded of his famous innings ; nevertheless , he has been remembered well beyond his own lifetime . Within two years , 31 - year - old Australian Test cricketer Charles Eady came close to breaking the record , when he made 566 for Break - o ' - Day against Wellington in Hobart in less than eight hours spread over three weeks in March 1902 . This remains the closest challenge to Collins ' record : only four other players , Dadabhoy Havewala ( 515 ) , JC Sharp ( 505 not out ) , Malhotra Chamanlal ( 502 not out ) , and Brian Lara ( 501 not out ) have ever scored more than 500 runs in one innings in any form of cricket ; Lara is the only person to have achieved a score of over 500 runs in first - class cricket . Military career . Collins chose to follow an army career , passing his entrance exams to the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich in September 1901 and representing the Royal Military Academy at both football and rugby as well as cricket , scoring a century in a match against Sandhurst . He joined the British Army the following year , being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 21 December 1904 . Despite the limitations on his sport that the military service caused , he played several matches for Old Cliftonians , his regiment , and the Army , remaining a free - hitting batsman . He played at Lord ' s in 1913 for Royal Engineers against Royal Artillery , scoring 58 and 36 runs in the two innings , but he never played first - class cricket . He also joined Clifton Rugby Football Club in February 1905 , but never rose above the 2nd XV . He served with the 2nd Sappers and Miners in India , and was promoted to Lieutenant on 23 June 1907 . He married Ethel Slater in the spring of 1914 , and was sent to France when World War I broke out later that year . He was killed in action , as a Captain , on 11 November 1914 at the First Battle of Ypres , while serving with the 5th Field Company , Royal Engineers , at the age of 29 . He was signalling for more men to protect the flank of his trench when he was killed ; his body was dragged back into the trench by Sapper Farnfield ( 23900 ) . The 5th Field Company carried out the burials of its Company on 12 November . Due to the continual fighting over this area for the next four years what remained of his grave and remains were never found , but his name is recorded at the Menin Gate Memorial in Belgium . Before his death , he had been Mentioned in Despatches . His younger brother Herbert ( a Lieutenant in the 24th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and also an old Cliftonian ) was killed in action on 11 February 1917 , aged 27 . Collins ' s wife , Ethel , lived as a widow for over fifty years , dying on 1 September 1966 in Haslemere .