South Africa
1918-11-18
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.
Australia
1917-10-31
Albert 'Tibby' Cotter, the fastest bowler Australia had produced before the war and one of the Big Six who walked out in 1912, was killed in action at the Charge of Beersheba on 31 October 1917. He was 33. He had taken 89 wickets in 21 Tests.
England
1917-11-08
Colin Blythe, the slow left-arm spinner who had taken 100 Test wickets for England and been the heart of Kent's championship sides, was killed by a German shell while laying railway track behind the lines near Ypres on 8 November 1917. He was 38.
England
1916-07-01
Major William Booth — Major was his given name, not a rank — Yorkshire all-rounder and Test cricketer, was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916, while serving with the 15th (Leeds Pals) West Yorkshire Regiment. He was 29.
Warwickshire
1916-07-22
Percy Jeeves, the Warwickshire fast-medium bowler whose name P.G. Wodehouse borrowed for the most famous butler in English fiction, was killed in action at High Wood on the Somme on 22 July 1916. He was 28 and had no known grave.
England
1916-09-03
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.
Worcestershire
1916-07-07
William 'Billy' Burns, the Worcestershire fast bowler and middle-order batsman who once took a hat-trick against Gloucestershire and bowled out the Australians at Worcester in 1909, was killed near Contalmaison during the Battle of the Somme on 7 July 1916. He was 32.
England and beyond
1916-04-15
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1916, published in spring 1916 and edited by Sydney Pardon, ran the longest obituary section in the publication's history — listing dozens of first-class cricketers killed in the first eighteen months of war and including W.G. Grace, Victor Trumper and A.E. Stoddart in a single calendar year.
Tasmania
1915-09-25
Alfred Williams, a Tasmanian all-rounder who had played first-class cricket for the state before the war and enlisted with the AIF, was among the earliest Australian first-class cricketers to be killed on the Western Front, falling in action in late September 1915. He was in his late twenties.
England
1915-07-23
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.
England
1915-04-01
From spring 1915 the MCC closed Lord's to first-class fixtures and made the ground available to the war effort. The pavilion was used as a wartime club for officers, parts of the outfield were dug for vegetables, and at various points the ground hosted military drills, hay storage and ammunition depots.
England
1915-04-15
In April 1915 the MCC formally announced that no County Championship would be held in 1915. With Test cricket already gone, the suspension marked the start of four consecutive lost first-class seasons in England — the longest gap in the history of the County Championship.
England
1915-08-15
Frank Foster, the Warwickshire left-armer who had taken 32 wickets on the 1911-12 Ashes tour as Sydney Barnes' new-ball partner, was injured in a motorcycle accident on military duty in August 1915. He never played first-class cricket again. He was 26.
England
1914-08-27
On 27 August 1914, four weeks into the war, W.G. Grace published an open letter in The Sportsman urging that first-class cricket be suspended. The letter — 'I think the time has arrived when the county cricket season should be closed' — effectively ended the 1914 season early and shamed any club still playing into stopping.