Edmund Wilson, a Cambridge Blue and amateur batsman who had played for Yorkshire before the war, was killed in action near Hooge in the Ypres salient in July 1915. He was 25.
Wilson was a leg-side batsman of promise; the Cambridge side he played in had also included future Test cricketers.
He took a commission in the Rifle Brigade on the outbreak of war and went to France in early 1915. By July his battalion was holding part of the Hooge sector.
Wilson was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he won a Blue. He played a handful of first-class matches for Yorkshire as an amateur. He was among the first wave of public-school officers to enlist in 1914 and held a commission in the Rifle Brigade. On 23 July 1915 his battalion was in the line at Hooge in the Ypres salient — a sector that had recently been hit by the first German use of liquid fire. Wilson was killed by sniper fire while moving along his trench. He was buried at Sanctuary Wood Cemetery. His death came in the same week as several other young first-class cricketers; Wisden's 1916 obituary section ran for over thirty pages.
1912: Cambridge Blue
1913-14: Plays for Yorkshire as an amateur
1914: Commissioned into the Rifle Brigade
23 Jul 1915: Killed by sniper fire at Hooge
1890
Edmund Wilson born
1912
Cambridge Blue
1914
Enlists in the Rifle Brigade
23 Jul 1915
Killed at Hooge, Ypres salient
“A young cricketer of promise and an officer of unusual courage.”
Buried at Sanctuary Wood Cemetery in Belgium. His name was added to the Cambridge University war memorial and to the Yorkshire cricketers' roll.
A Cambridge Blue and Yorkshire amateur, killed at 25 in the Ypres salient.
Wilson is representative of the public-school amateur cricketers — Oxford and Cambridge Blues — who enlisted in such numbers in 1914 and were killed at extraordinarily high rates in the early actions of 1915.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
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