From 1915 onwards, charity and services cricket became the only first-rank cricket in England — featuring matches between Royal Navy, Army, RFC, Dominion troops and ad-hoc 'England' XIs raised from cricketers not in uniform. The proceeds went to war funds and the matches kept the game in the public eye.
With first-class cricket suspended, the only outlet for first-rank players in England were these charity and services games.
The MCC formally opened Lord's to charity matches from spring 1915. The Australian Imperial Force and other Dominion forces gradually built up touring sides.
With the County Championship suspended, the cricketing energy of England flowed into charity matches. The MCC made Lord's available for these from 1915. Australian and New Zealand troops in transit through England formed touring sides; the Royal Naval Division had its own cricket team; the Royal Flying Corps played frequently at the depot at Hampstead where Hobbs worked. By 1916 a regular pattern of summer fixtures had emerged: Australia services v England services at Lord's was the showpiece, drawing decent crowds and raising significant sums for war charities. Hobbs, Hendren, Woolley and other county pros played in the matches when they could be released. The cricket was uneven — many leading players were in France — but it kept skills sharp and gave audiences a wartime anchor. The 1919 'AIF' tour of England, which followed the Armistice, was the natural extension of this wartime services tradition.
1915: First charity matches at Lord's
1916: Australia services side begins regular fixtures
1917-18: Services cricket increasingly organised
1919: AIF tour of England consolidates the wartime tradition
1915
Lord's opened to charity matches
1916
Australia services regular fixtures begin
1919
AIF tour of England
“The Lord's crowd came back for the services matches as gladly as they had for any pre-war fixture.”
The 1919 AIF tour of England — featuring some who would become Test players in the 1920s — was the direct legacy of these wartime fixtures.
Cricket reduced from championship to charity, but kept alive at Lord's through four years of war by services and ad-hoc sides.
Wartime services cricket is the thread between Test cricket of 1914 and Test cricket of 1920. It also funded a substantial amount of war charity.
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.