Wisden tribute to fallen cricketers of first world war

[Michelle Young]

This months The Cricketer magazine has a lot of pages regarding cricket in the Great War

Michelle

[Ajaxer]

Pete:

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

by W. B. Yeats

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.

Remembering Major William Robert Gregory MC (RFC), killed January 23, 1918, in Italy, aged 36.

He was the subject of four poems by Yeats who was a friend of his mother.

He played a single first-class match for Ireland against Scotland in Dublin in 1912, taking eight wickets for 80 in Scotland's first innings (not second as stated in the book).

[Fattyowls]

Andrew

The entry leapt out of the page at me; I am fond of Yeats and have loved that particular poem since I first read it so it was a moment of real delight for me. I had no idea of the connection.

Pete.

[Ajaxer]

I am more conscious than ever of things I missed from my book, and having now listened to Frederick Septimus Kelly's Elegy for strings, in memoriam Rupert Brooke, I wish I had mentioned it in connection with the boy who headed the Rugby School bowling averages in 1906 (and who later 'had gained considerable reputation as a poet').

The music was played at the Proms 'Lest We Forget' concert and can be heard here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04dqdyb

For more on the truly remarkable life of Kelly who was with Brooke when he died, which has been posted elsewhere on the GWF, see:

http://hear-the-boat-sing.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/F.S.%20Kelly

This site has been updated in recent days and has a link to the Elegy with a video and quotes about Brooke's death and burial.

Please spend a few minutes listening and watching.

Kelly himself was killed on the Somme on November 13, 1916.

[Ajaxer]

I have been sent a photograph of the Artists Rifles OTC Cricket Club 1916.

There are some 30 men in whites, plus umpires in white coats on top of their khaki uniforms.

The CO, Lt-Col W Shirley, is also in uniform.

2nd Lt Bostock Wheeler is named as Hon Sec, as is the captain, Sgt D J Knight (who played for Surrey).

But we have no other names.

Wisden 1917 p281 lists Knight's scores in 25 matches, so we know the opponents, but no team scores.

The report says that the best bowlers were G G Dumbelton and E C Kirk.

There were two elevens, the firsts described as "a really powerful combination".

They played many matches at Leyton.

But I have been unable to discover any other names of players, or scorecards.

I have asked David Frith if he knows anything more, but he does not.

So the challenge is to discover any details of the Artists Rifles CC.

Someone must know...

[David_Underdown]

Try Patrick Baty too (@patrickbaty)

[daggers]

D.J. Knight - how that takes me back. In the late 1940s I saw him playing in an 'Old England XI' with some other oldish and once-famous players, including the probably better-known Maurice Leyland.

This is off- topic so I will stop.

D

[Ajaxer]

The power of the GWF. It never fails.

Thanks to David Underdown's lead, which I followed and was passed to a third party, I now have a file of the relevant pages from the Artists Rifles Journal of 1916 with all the scores of matches, plus averages and a photo of the team that played the Public Schools at the Oval on Aug 18 & 19, 1916, as well as full l-r of the squad photo which I had been sent.

There are also scores of four matches played "somewhere in France" in June and July 1916.

The ARs won all four, against HAC (who were obviously missing their big guns as they were dismissed for 21), RE twice and "An Army School of Instruction".

Wartime paper shortages put an end to the journal before the 1917 season so we only have this one year's records.

The CO, Lt-Col Shirley, wrote "How to play cricket" 1925 with notes by A C MacLaren.

Wisden had obits of two AR men who appear in my book: D L Priestley (f-c for Gloucs) d 30.10.17 and J F Gornall (Liverpool Institute) d 31.3.18. Neither played in 1916.

I think an article beckons for 2016.

Or a second edition of WOTGW...

[daggers]

I can offer a little on J.F. Gornall. His name is on the small memorial to members of Aigburth Methodist Church in Liverpool (sadly now defunct and under conversion to 'apartments').

This what I found, other than CWGC data which you can find.

"J.F. Gornall is also remembered on the Liverpool Institute memorial but with initials ‘J.E.’ – it has been preserved at LIPA -the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

‘Soldiers Died in the Great War’ says he died of wounds and includes only the 1/5th Battalion.

His name does not appear on the Roll of Honour of the Artists Rifles, but he was posted to them on 31/1/18, according to the Medal Card at the National Archives. "

I have a photograph of him from McCorquodale's Roll of Honour - a large printing firm then. Let me know if you need a copy. I realise this is stretching beyond Wisden!

D

[The Scorer]

On Saturday 30th August, I visited the revamped "In Flanders Fields" Museum in Ypres.

I wasn't too keen on what they've done to it, to be honest, but I was interested to see that on the ground floor next to the shop they have a small exhibition (just three or four cabinets) called "Fair Play? Sport and the Great War". There are displays on a number of players, some of which will be known to many of us here. For example, Dave Gallaher (New Zealand) and Jimmy Spears (Scotland) represent Rugby Union and Football respectively and there's also a picture of Colin Blyth of Kent and England representing Cricket.

There's a companion booklet with the same title available from the shop priced at 5euros. I've got a copy, and it covers cycling, athletics, football, rugby, cricket and boxing amongst others. It also contains a poem by James Norman Hall (who was apparently the co-author of "The Mutiny on the Bounty") entitled "The Cricketers of Flanders"; here it is:

"THE FIRST to climb the parapet

With “cricket balls” in either hand;

The first to vanish in the smoke

Of God-forsaken No Man’s Land;

First at the wire and soonest through

First at those red-mouthed hounds of hell,

The Maxims, and the first to fall,—

They do their bit and do it well.

Full sixty yards I’ve seen them throw

With all that nicety of aim

They learned on British cricket-fields,

Ah, bombing is a Briton’s game!

Shell-hole to shell-hole, trench to trench,

“Lobbing them over” with an eye

As true as though it were a game

And friends were having tea close by.

Pull down some art-offending thing

Of carven stone, and in its stead

Let splendid bronze commemorate

These men, the living and the dead.

No figure of heroic size,

Towering skyward like a god;

But just a lad who might have stepped

From any British bombing squad.

His shrapnel helmet set atilt,

His bombing waistcoat sagging low,

His rifle slung across his back:

Poised in the very act to throw.

And let some graven legend tell

Of those weird battles in the West

Wherein he put old skill to use,

And played old games with sterner zest.

Thus should he stand, reminding those

In less-believing days, perchance,

How Britain’s fighting cricketers

Helped bomb the Germans out of France.

And other eyes than ours would see;

And other hearts than ours would thrill;

And others say, as we have said:

“A sportsman and a soldier still!” "

The other thing that I found interesting is that there's a replica (white, and much bigger) cricket ball bearing the inscription: "In memory of all cricketers who gave their lives in the cause of freedom. Presented by the England Cricket Team, Oxford Road Cemetery, Ypres, June 2009."

Those nice people over at Wikipedia say that "In 2009, when the England cricket team visited the Flanders war graves, a "stone cricket ball was laid at the grave of England and Kent bowler Colin Blythe, who died at Passchendaele.^] "It was a deeply moving and humbling experience," said captain Andrew Strauss.^{" "}

Now, I can under stand why it was laid at Oxford Road Cemetery, but why have the museum got it and how did they get it? Did the CWGC remove it from the grave after a while and present it to them?

I have a photo of the display, but as it's in my cameras at the moment, I can't send it to anyone - but I'll do this as soon as I can.

[Scalyback]

How big is the booklet? I would love to see cycling parts.

As to removal of items from graves. CWGC will remove items after a time. These items will be kept localy for a while before appropriate disposal. In this case the ball would be moved to the musuem as a historical item. The owner known etc. This is in keeping of guidelines of the cemetrys being unifrom. There are added memorials in the CWGC areas but these tend to be 1920's extras. These in themselves are hitorical additions.

[Ajaxer]

Daggers:

Gornall is in Wisden because he played for Liverpool Institute. Do you have any cricket info on that?

McCorquodale briefly owned Wisden 1985-7 (see Wisden Collector's Guide, 2011, by A Renshaw & J Rice, with foreword by Sir Tim Rice).

The Scorer:

I had not previously come across the poem The Cricketers of Flanders. Thank you.

It reminds me of another poem about a cricketer's skills being using in bomb / grenade throwing, but cannot name it at the moment. Sassoon perhaps?

Scalyback's explanation re the removal of the ball seems right.

If the booklet covers tennis, Tony Wilding should be there: a first-class cricketer too.

[Scalyback]

Also to say my spelling and typing was a bit under par last night!

[Ajaxer]

The number of first-class cricketers who fell has risen to 290.

George Macnamara has previously been misidentified. He played for Ireland against Scotland in 1913:

http://www.cricketeurope4.net/CSTATZ/IRELANDBIOS/m/macnamara_gf.shtml

I am indebted to Edward Liddle for pointing this out to me.

Totally unconnected is this entry from a War Diary after a Retreat in March 1918 near Authuille:

“To celebrate the conclusion of our long innings, Battalion Headquarters indulged in a game of stump cricket which was rather spoilt by the arrival of a Hun high velocity shell. It ruined the pitch and scattered the field, but fortunately no one retired hurt.”

My Holy Grail is a photo of any cricket match "somewhere in France".

[David_Underdown]

Will Salonika do? See this recent tweet from the Lives of the First World War team https://twitter.com/LivesOfWW1/status/507563972527407104

[Ajaxer]

Thanks, David.

I like it and have re-tweeted it.

But it's not the Holy Grail...

[The Scorer]

How big is the booklet? I would love to see cycling parts.

As to removal of items from graves. CWGC will remove items after a time. These items will be kept localy for a while before appropriate disposal. In this case the ball would be moved to the musuem as a historical item. The owner known etc. This is in keeping of guidelines of the cemetrys being unifrom. There are added memorials in the CWGC areas but these tend to be 1920's extras. These in themselves are hitorical additions.

Daggers:

Gornall is in Wisden because he played for Liverpool Institute. Do you have any cricket info on that?

McCorquodale briefly owned Wisden 1985-7 (see Wisden Collector's Guide, 2011, by A Renshaw & J Rice, with foreword by Sir Tim Rice).

The Scorer:

I had not previously come across the poem The Cricketers of Flanders. Thank you.

It reminds me of another poem about a cricketer's skills being using in bomb / grenade throwing, but cannot name it at the moment. Sassoon perhaps?

Scalyback's explanation re the removal of the ball seems right.

If the booklet covers tennis, Tony Wilding should be there: a first-class cricketer too.

Thanks for this explanation about the trophy; I thought that it would be something like this.

The booklet is approximately A4 in size, and is made up of 24 pages. It seems to be one of a series produced by the Museum, as it's number 3; I don't know what the others are, though.

It doesn't cover tennis; this is a full list (in alphabetical order) of the sports it does cover: athletics; boxing; cricket; cycle racing; fencing; football; gymnastics; rowing; and rugby union. There are about nine pages on cycle racing, and if you can PM me with an address, please, I'll make a copy and sent them to you in the post.

I've found this link http://www.inflandersfields.be/en/sport-and-the-first-world-war on the museum web site to the exhibition which gives some more details.

[Scalyback]

That sounds great. Seen a "cycling" VC in the Ashcroft collection yesterday. The chap rode for a team still racing the roads of the west county. I can't say I found any "cricket" VCs mentioned.

PM Will be sent later as off to lunch with the outlaws

[Ajaxer]

There are eight men in Wisden on the Great War who won VCs.

The VC of Sidney Woodroffe (p192) is in the Ashcroft collection, and probably others.

Only one man who has played first-class cricket won a VC: J G Smyth (p525) who also served in WW2 and then became an MP.

He is due a belated obituary in next year's Wisden.

[Michael Pegum]

I have just discovered this thread, not being a cricket fan!

Is Frank Browning included? He played 38 times for Ireland, being captain 13 times. He was in uniform as a member of a Volunteer Training Corps when he was shot and killed during the Easter Rising in Dublin in April, 1916.

He may not have been regarded as being a war casualty, and does not have a war grave, but the British soldiers who were killed in the Rising did get CWGC headstones, even though they were not counted as having gone overseas.

Michael

[Ajaxer]

Frank Browning is not included, and is not on CWGC.

But it's an interesting point. He had an obituary in Wisden 1917, and other men who died later in the Irish troubles are included.

Edward Liddle has identified George Macnamara as the 290th first-class cricketer to die, see above, and he writes about Browning here:

http://cricketeurope4.net/CSTATZ/irelandall/bio/b/browning_fh.html

[The Scorer]

That sounds great. Seen a "cycling" VC in the Ashcroft collection yesterday. The chap rode for a team still racing the roads of the west county. I can't say I found any "cricket" VCs mentioned.

PM Will be sent later as off to lunch with the outlaws

I hope that lunch with the outlaws didn't affect you that much, as I haven't received a PM from you yet?

Thanks!

[The Scorer]

I've come across another 1914 themed cricket book.

This is "The Final Over - The Cricketers of Summer 1914" by Christopher Sandford. This is a review from The History Press:

"August 1914 brought an end to the ‘Golden Age’ of English cricket. At least 210 professional cricketers (out of a total of 278 registered) signed up to fight, of whom thirty-four were killed. However, that period and those men were far more than merely statistics: here we follow in intimate detail not only the cricketers of that fateful last summer before the war, but also the simple pleasures and daily struggles of their family lives and the whole fabric of English social life as it existed on the eve of that cataclysm: the First World War. With unprecedented access to personal and war diaries, and other papers, Sandford expertly recounts the stories of such greats as Hon. Lionel Tennyson, as he moves virtually overnight from the round of Chelsea and Mayfair parties into the front line at the Marne; the violin-playing bowler Colin Blythe, who asked to be moved up to a front-line unit at Passchendaele, following the death in action of his brother, with tragic consequences; and the widely popular Hampshire amateur player Robert Jesson, whose sometimes comic, frequently horrific and always enthralling experiences of the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign are vividly brought to life. The Final Over is undoubtedly a gripping, moving and fully human account of this most poignant summer of the twentieth century, both on and off the field of play."

It sounds like a good book, although the figures in the review seem to be very low when compared to those quoted above in post 146.

Be that as it may, has anyone read this book and, if they have, would they recommend it, please? Thank you.

[Ajaxer]

I visited the Artists Rifles exhibition in Basingstoke this morning: small but fascinating.

A good show of both Nashes in particular.

It ends in Basingstoke on Sept 27 and then runs at Gosport from Oct 4 until Dec 27.

Meanwhile, back to Wisden on the Great War. I am proud to say it has been shortlisted for the Cricket Writers Club book of the year, to be announced on Sept 30.

[Fattyowls]

Meanwhile, back to Wisden on the Great War. I am proud to say it has been shortlisted for the Cricket Writers Club book of the year, to be announced on Sept 30.

Congratulations Andrew; fingers crossed. Keep us posted.

Pete.