Reginald Schwarz, the South African leg-spinner who in the 1900s helped pioneer the googly attack with Faulkner, Vogler and White, died of influenza at Étaples in northern France on 18 November 1918 — exactly one week after the Armistice. He was 43.
Schwarz was born in London, played rugby for England before turning to cricket, and qualified for Transvaal. With Faulkner, Vogler and White he formed the most distinctive bowling unit of the pre-war era.
He served on the Western Front, won the MC, and was at the British base at Étaples when the second wave of Spanish flu swept the camps in October-November 1918.
Schwarz had been the senior partner in the four-man googly attack that had given South Africa its first golden age of Test cricket from 1905 to 1910. He had taken the googly from his former Middlesex team-mate B.J.T. Bosanquet — its inventor — and refined it for matting wickets. He played 20 Tests, taking 55 wickets at 25.76. By 1914 he was working in business in London. He enlisted in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, was commissioned, and served on the Western Front. He survived the war with a Military Cross. In November 1918, with the Armistice already signed, he was caught by the second wave of the Spanish influenza pandemic at the British base at Étaples. He died on 18 November, seven days after the war had ended. The pandemic killed at least 50 million people worldwide; Schwarz was one of an enormous number of cricketers, soldiers and civilians who survived the fighting only to die in the influenza wave.
1904: Middlesex; learns the googly from Bosanquet
1905-06: South Africa win first home Test series, Schwarz takes 18 wickets
1907: Tours England as one of the four South African googly bowlers
1914: Enlists in the King's Royal Rifle Corps
1918: Awarded the Military Cross
18 Nov 1918: Dies of Spanish influenza at Étaples, one week after the Armistice
1875
Reginald Oscar Schwarz born in London
1904
Learns the googly from Bosanquet at Middlesex
1907
Tours England with the South African googly attack
1914
Enlists in the King's Royal Rifle Corps
18 Nov 1918
Dies of Spanish flu at Étaples, one week after Armistice
“Schwarz was the most accurate of all the leg-break bowlers of his time.”
Buried at Étaples Military Cemetery. He was 43. His Military Cross is held in a private collection.
South Africa's googly pioneer survived the war and was killed by the flu seven days after the Armistice.
Schwarz is the senior name in the South African googly era — without him the others (Faulkner, Vogler, White) might never have learned the delivery. His death of influenza, after surviving four years of war, was characteristic of the casualty pattern of late 1918.
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