Hedley Verity, the Yorkshire and England slow left-arm bowler whose 144 Test wickets at 24.37 included a record 15 wickets in a single Lord's Test, died on 31 July 1943 in a German-controlled hospital at Caserta after being severely wounded leading his platoon during the Allied invasion of Sicily. He was 38, and had not played first-class cricket since taking 7/9 against Sussex on the day Britain declared war. His death — alongside that of fellow Test cricketers Ken Farnes, Ross Gregory and Maurice Turnbull — became the most poignant individual loss cricket suffered in the Second World War.
Born in Headingley in 1905 and a slow developer, Verity made his Yorkshire debut only in 1930 but was in the Test side by 1931. By the time war broke out he had taken 1,956 first-class wickets at 14.90 — figures that put him in the conversation with Rhodes, Lohmann and Barnes for the title of greatest English bowler.
He was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1939, having served briefly in the ranks, and rose to captain. Bowes, captured at Tobruk and later a POW, recalled Verity studying military textbooks with the same patient seriousness he had brought to length and flight.
By July 1943 the Allies had landed in Sicily. The Green Howards were tasked with assaulting a strongly held farmhouse position east of Catania on the night of 19-20 July. Verity led B Company in. Tracer fire lit the cornfields, and he was hit in the chest leading his men forward through standing crops set ablaze by the Germans.
Verity had captained men under fire as readily as he had captained the Yorkshire bowling attack. As a captain in the 1st Battalion Green Howards he led B Company in an attack on a strongly defended German position at Catania on the night of 19 July 1943. Hit in the chest by machine-gun fire and unable to move, he ordered his men to keep going and was eventually carried by Italian stretcher bearers after the position fell.
Moved through field hospitals at Catania, Reggio and Naples, Verity was finally handed by the Germans to the Italians and taken to a hospital at Caserta. After a further operation to remove a rib damaged in the bullet wound, he died on 31 July 1943. He was buried with full military honours by the Italians; his grave was later moved into the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Caserta where it stands today.
For a generation of English cricket followers Verity had been the heir to Wilfred Rhodes — quiet, deadly accurate, capable of taking 17 wickets in a day against Essex in 1933 and of bowling Bradman five times in Test cricket. His final first-class match, on 1 September 1939 at Hove, ended with the figures 6-1-9-7 as Sussex were skittled. The next morning the players were sent home; Verity walked off the Hove ground saying, according to Bill Bowes, 'I wonder what'll happen with this lot,' and never bowled a ball in anger again.
The news reached England via Red Cross telegrams in early August 1943. Wisden's 1944 obituary called him 'one of the great slow left-arm bowlers of all time' and noted that his 1,956 first-class wickets at 14.90 were taken in just nine seasons.
1 September 1939 — Verity takes 7/9 v Sussex at Hove in his last first-class match
1939 — commissioned into the 1st Battalion Green Howards
10 July 1943 — Allies land in Sicily; Green Howards in the assault force
19-20 July 1943 — Verity hit in the chest leading B Company near Catania
Captured by Germans, moved through Catania-Reggio-Naples to Caserta
30 July 1943 — operation to remove a damaged rib
31 July 1943 — dies at Caserta of his wounds, aged 38
Buried with full military honours; grave later moved to CWGC Caserta cemetery
18 May 1905
Born in Headingley, Leeds
1930
Yorkshire debut
1934
Takes 15/104 v Australia at Lord's, including 14 wickets on the second day
1 Sep 1939
Takes 7/9 v Sussex at Hove in final first-class match
1939
Commissioned into the Green Howards
19 Jul 1943
Wounded leading B Company near Catania
31 Jul 1943
Dies at Caserta of his wounds
“One of the great slow left-arm bowlers of all time.”
“I wonder what'll happen with this lot.”
News of his death reached England in early August. Yorkshire CCC held a memorial service at Headingley; the Headingley pavilion gates carry his name. Wisden devoted an unusually long obituary to him in the 1944 edition. His widow Kathleen and two young sons received condolences from Bradman, Hammond and the King.
The loss compounded an already grim ledger for Test cricketers killed in the war: Ken Farnes (RAF, October 1941), Ross Gregory (RAF, June 1942) and Maurice Turnbull (Welsh Guards, August 1944) all died in service, alongside Geoffrey Legge and many county professionals.
The single most resonant cricketing death of the Second World War. Verity's quiet courage at Catania, mirroring his demeanour with the ball, made him cricket's exemplar of the wartime sacrifice that thinned out a generation.
Verity's 144 Test wickets at 24.37 still place him among the leading English spinners; his 15-wicket haul against Australia at Lord's in 1934 — including taking 14 wickets in a single day — is unmatched by any English bowler in an Ashes Test.
A Wetherspoon pub in Leeds bears his name, as does the Hedley Verity gates at Headingley. In 2009 a memorial was unveiled at Caserta with players from Yorkshire and the Italian cricket federation present. He remains, with Albert Trott and Andy Ducat, one of the few cricketers whose obituary in Wisden is regularly re-read for the prose alone.
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
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.