Trott, who liked to drink too much, gambled with little luck and was interviewed by police (but not suspected) about the murder of a woman in Middlesex who had the reputation of being "scarlet", was 41 and deeply depressed. He'd signed himself out of hospital where he was being treated for oedema, a condition characterised by fluid collecting in the tissues of the body that was responsible for his bloated appearance.

His poor health forced him to retire from umpiring and, when his landlady told him of the pharmacist's refusal, he was said to have moaned: "Oh, dear, I can never go through another night." He did, but at 2 o'clock the following afternoon, Trott shot himself.

News of his suicide saddened the cricketing world. This was, after all, the man who, among many achievements, hit his mate Monty Noble clean over the Lord's pavilion in a match in which he represented the MCC because the Aussies – captained by Trott's brother Harry (he was named skipper after the team was selected) – didn't want him.

He is the only batsman to clear the Pavilion in its 125-year history and he told Boy's Own: "I was not very sure about it and the next thing I saw was the ball looking like a pea in the air."

His brother, who was named the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1893, fought his own demons. Not long after leading Australia in 1898, he collapsed and lost consciousness during a visit to his mother and suffered two more seizures that day. He lapsed in and out of consciousness over the next month and was diagnosed with insomnia, apathy and memory loss and was committed to the Kew Asylum in Melbourne where doctors said he suffered from alcoholism and dementia.

Reports noted he stood in the one spot, he struggled to comprehend questions and those he answered were in monosyllables. In 1900 he played for the asylum's cricket team against a Melbourne outfit and stunned doctors when he clobbered a rapid-fire 98, 86 of which consisted of boundaries and a six. When he took a hat-trick against another team, he was said to have recovered after spending 400 days in the asylum. Sadly, the institution would accommodate three Test cricketers from the sport's so-called "golden age".

He returned to cricket but never recaptured the form that made him a national hero. When Harry Trott died at 51, three years after his brother, tales were told of his humour, including the time when he told a US reporter the reason why Australians didn't play baseball was because "running around in circles makes us giddy".

The life stories of some of Australian cricket's pioneers are as colourful as they are tragic. It was meant to be an innocent age, when a gentleman was judged by the way he conducted himself on the field, but history suggests it was a time of darkness and demons, and downright scandal for some, such as:

Baggy Green No.7: London-born John Hodges bowled the first ball in Test cricket, took three wickets and scored eight runs for Australia in 1877. But seven years later, and with his first-class career behind him, he was said to have appeared before a court in Richmond charged with indecent exposure. The charges were dismissed and the bootmaker faded into obscurity.

Baggy Green No.10: William Midwinter was born in England and came to Australia as a child and lived in Bendigo. He was picked for the 1877 Test and played in eight Tests for the Aussies and four for England, but his life spiralled out of control in 1889 when his wife and two of his children died. The Bendigo Advertiser reported in 1890: "Midwinter had to be removed to the lunacy ward of the Bendigo Hospital, where he now remains a raving and malicious lunatic." In 1890 he was committed to the Kew Asylum where he died that year.

Baggy Green No.15: Frank Allan only played one Test, but should have played at least two. He was selected for the historic 1877 match but declined, telling selectors he'd prefer to attend the Warrnambool Agricultural Fair with friends than play.

Baggy Green No.32: William Bruce was 61 when he kissed his wife and said he wasn't sure if he'd be home for dinner. The left-hander played the first of his 14 Tests for Australia in 1885 and was highly regarded. But at the time of his death, Bruce's legal practice was in trouble and he was struggling with depression, a situation not helped by his drinking. There seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel and he was found drowned in the ocean.

Baggy Green No.41: George McShane was Bruce's teammate and played in three Tests between 1885 and 1888 and also captained Fitzroy's VFL team. But after his sporting days finished, he suffered from mental illness and was admitted to the Kew Asylum where he died in 1903 aged 46. Baggy Green No.44: John Ferris' first act as an Australian fast bowler was to bowl in tandem with the great Charlie Turner and dismiss England for 45 in the second Test of the 1886-87 Ashes series. He moved to England and took 13 for 91 in his only Test for them against South Africa in Cape Town during the 1891-92 tour. He returned to Africa in 1900 as a soldier in the British army to fight the Boers, but died of typhoid aged 33.

Baggy Green No.49: John Cottam also played in the 1886-87 series alongside Ferris and Tom Garrett, whose great-grandson Peter was the lead singer of Midnight Oil before becoming a politician. Cottam scored four runs and was lured to the goldfields in Western Australia where, rather than making his fortune, he lost his life. He fell to typhoid in 1897, aged 29.

Baggy Green No.50: While Harry Trott couldn't use his muscle as captain to help Alfred play for Australia when the selectors overlooked him, South Australia's George Giffen – the first Australian to score 10,000 runs and take 500 wickets in first-class cricket – ensured his brother Walter played for the country, despite not being considered one of the top performers in inter-colonial cricket. When he was named skipper of the 1894 touring team, George was accused of nepotism when Walter played three Tests in which he "amassed" 11 runs.

The nature of the deaths of the Trott brothers, McShane, Bruce and Midwinter are stories no one could have predicted. Certainly not Frank Mitchell who toured South Africa with Trott in 1898-99 and wrote of his friend: "Not everyone is gifted with the temperament and also, may I add, stomach of Albert Trott, to whom everything came alike, fair weather and foul, good food or no food, sleep or no sleep; it was all the same to him – an ideal professor for atour."