When his father died in 1824 he had inherited the running of his school, aged only nineteen, and he was afraid that the parents of pupils might think that cricket was too frivolous a pastime for a schoolmaster.

Felix was a specialist left-handed batsman, although he did occasionally bowl underarm slow left-arm orthodox.

He was a mainstay of the great Kent team of the mid-19th century alongside such players as Alfred Mynn, Fuller Pilch, William Hillyer and Ned Wenman.

He played at a time when prevailing conditions greatly favoured bowlers and was rated very highly as a batsman by his contemporaries.

A man of many talents, he was also a classical scholar, musician, linguist, inventor, writer and artist.