Kenneth Hutchings, the dashing Kent batsman who had toured Australia with England in 1907-08 and scored 126 at Melbourne, was killed by a shell at Ginchy on the Somme on 3 September 1916. He was 33.
Hutchings was educated at Tonbridge, played for Kent from 1902, and was part of the championship-winning sides of 1906 and 1909. His 1907-08 tour to Australia was the high point of his cricket career.
He was commissioned into the 4th Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment and posted to the Western Front in 1915. By August 1916 his battalion was involved in the later phases of the Somme offensive.
Hutchings was Kent's most attractive batsman of the immediate pre-war years — tall, hard-hitting, immensely popular at Canterbury. He played seven Tests for England, scoring 341 runs including a memorable 126 in the second innings of the Melbourne Test in January 1908 against an Australia attack including Tibby Cotter and Monty Noble. By 1912 he had largely retired from county cricket to concentrate on his job in business. When war broke out he enlisted in the King's Liverpool Regiment and was commissioned. On 3 September 1916, during the British attack on Ginchy as part of the Battle of the Somme, he was killed instantly by a shell while leading his platoon. He was buried at Guillemont Road Cemetery. Within twelve months Cotter, his old Australian opponent, would also be killed.
1907-08: Tours Australia with England, scores 126 at Melbourne
1909: Plays in Kent's Championship-winning side
1912: Effectively retires from first-class cricket
1914: Enlists in King's Liverpool Regiment
3 Sep 1916: Killed by shell at Ginchy
1882
Kenneth Hutchings born in Tonbridge
1907-08
Tours Australia, scores 126 at Melbourne
1912
Effectively retires from first-class cricket
1914
Enlists in the King's Liverpool Regiment
3 Sep 1916
Killed at Ginchy, Battle of the Somme
“A magnificent driver of the ball, with a natural eye and the courage to use it.”
Buried at Guillemont Road Cemetery, France. His name was added to the Tonbridge School memorial and to Kent's roll of cricketers killed in the war.
Kent's pre-war star batsman killed at Ginchy at 33, having scored a memorable Test century in Australia eight years earlier.
Hutchings is one of a long list of Kent cricketers — including Blythe — who were killed in the war. His Test innings of 126 at Melbourne is still regarded as one of the more attractive English centuries on Australian soil before Hammond.
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.