Geoffrey Cradock-Watson

{{short description|English cricketer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}

{{Infobox cricketer

| name = Geoffrey Cradock-Watson

| image =

| country = England

| fullname = Geoffrey Gillman Cradock-Watson

| birth_date = 22 August 1908

| birth_place = Great Crosby, Lancashire, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|1989|6|24|1908|8|22|df=yes}}

| death_place = Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England

| nickname =

| family =

| heightft =

| heightinch =

| batting = Right-handed

| bowling =

| role = Wicket-keeper

| club1 = Northern India

| year1 = {{nowrap|1937/38–1938/39}}

| club2 = Europeans

| year2 = 1937/38–1939/40

| columns = 1

| column1 = First-class

| matches1 = 6

| runs1 = 179

| bat avg1 = 14.91

| 100s/50s1 = 0/0

| top score1 = 33

| hidedeliveries = true

| catches/stumpings1 = 6/4

| date = 11 February

| year = 2022

| source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/27746.html ESPNcricinfo

}}

Geoffrey Gillman Cradock-Watson {{postnominal|OBE}} (22 August 1908 — 24 June 1989) was an English first-class cricketer who played in India and an aviator.

Cradock-Watson was born at Great Crosby in Lancashire in August 1908. He was educated in Crosby at the Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, where his father was headmaster. At school, he captained the cricket team. He matriculated to St John's College, Oxford,{{cite book|title=The Aeroplane Directory of British Aviation|publisher=English Universities Press|first1=C. P.|last1=Bracken|first2=Theodore Stanhope|last2=Sprigg|first3=W. C. M.|last3=Whittle|first4=William Lockwood|last4=Marsh|year=1966|page=382|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wcwpAQAAIAAJ|language=en}} where he gained a half blue in athletics.

After graduating from Oxford, Cradock-Watson began a career in the petroleum industry for Shell International. His first position was in British Burma, which was then administered as part of British India, where he was a marketing assistant from 1930 to 1940.

In the late 1930s, Cradock-Watson played first-class cricket for Northern India on three occasions in the Ranji Trophy from 1937 to 1939; he also made three first-class appearances for the Europeans cricket team from 1937 to 1940, including one appearance apiece in both the Bombay Pentangular and Madras Presidency Matches.{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/13/13232/First-Class_Matches.html|title=First-Class Matches played by Geoffrey Cradock-Watson|publisher=CricketArchive|access-date=2022-02-11|url-access=subscription}} In six first-class matches, he scored 179 runs at an average of 14.91 and with a highest score of 33. A wicket-keeper while fielding, he took 6 catches and made 4 stumpings.{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/13/13232/f_Batting_by_Team.html|title=First-Class Batting and Fielding For Each Team by Geoffrey Cradock-Watson|publisher=CricketArchive|access-date=2022-02-11|url-access=subscription}}

He served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in the Second World War, being commissioned as a pilot officer in the administrative and special duties branch.{{London Gazette|issue=35114|date=21 March 1941|page=1664}} He was promoted to the war substantive rank of flying officer in January 1942,{{London Gazette|issue=35483|date=10 March 1942|page=1122}} gaining the rank in full in November 1943.{{London Gazette|issue=36340|date=18 January 1944|page=425}} Cradock-Watson was made an OBE in the 1944 New Year Honours.{{London Gazette|issue=36309|date=31 December 1943|page=18|supp=y}}{{cite news |title=O.B.E. for Wing Commander |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000271/19440113/069/0003 |access-date=11 February 2022 |work=The Liverpool Echo |date=13 January 1944 |page=3 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription}} He was mentioned in dispatches in January 1945, at which point he held the acting rank of wing commander.{{London Gazette|issue=36866|date=29 December 1944|page=63|supp=y}} He served in both the European and Middle Eastern theatres. Following the end of the war, he was decorated by the United States as an Officer of the Legion of Merit in October 1945, in recognition of valuable services rendered during the war.{{London Gazette|issue=37300|date=5 October 1945|page=4958|supp=y}} After the war he resumed his career in the petroleum industry, working as an aviation manager for the Asiatic Petroleum Company. Cradock-Watson died at Gloucester in June 1989.