Surgeon-Captain John Ernest Trask (27 October 1861 – 25 July 1896) was an English Army doctor and amateur cricketer.

[3] He had contracted cholera at Korosko while tending to others suffering from the disease, and after fighting the illness for a few weeks, he died on the same day as he arrived in Kosheh.

As one of the seven British medical officers in the Egyptian Army, Trask was praised for his part in helping to manage the cholera outbreak.

[8] In an official notice relating to his estate published in the London Gazette, his address is given as 40 St James Square, Holland Park.

[1] He played for Lansdown Cricket Club during his youth alongside his brother, Charles,[10] and his cousin, William Trask.

During his time in the country he was involved in establishing the presidency matches,[1] in which he made six first-class appearances for the Europeans cricket team, and also played for Bombay.

[19] He played six more matches for Somerset on his return home in 1895, but left again after a couple of months to assume his Army posting in Egypt.

[1][20] In answer to my questions it claimed to be the spirit of one whom I will call Dodd, who was a famous cricketer, and with whom I had some serious conversation in Cairo before he went up the Nile, where he met his death in the Dongolese Expedition.

Andrew Lycett, author of The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes; The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, claims that this spirit is in fact that of John Trask.

[21] These statements all support the assertion that the spirit is Trask, as his posting to the Egyptian Army would likely have seen him in Cairo, while his death is well documented as occurring during the Dongolese Expedition of 1896.