James Sutcliffe

{{short description|English cricketer and Royal Marines officer}}

{{For|the American composer and music critic|James Helme Sutcliffe}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}

{{Infobox cricketer

| name = James Sutcliffe

| image =

| country = England

| fullname = James Frederick Sutcliffe

| nickname =

| birth_date = 14 December 1876

| birth_place = Chatham, Kent, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1915|7|14|1876|12|14|df=yes}}

| death_place = Cape Helles, Gallipoli,
Ottoman Empire

| heightft =

| heightinch =

| batting = Right-handed

| bowling =

| role =

| family =

| club1 = Hampshire

| year1 = 1911

| columns = 1

| column1 = First-class

| matches1 = 1

| runs1 = 24

| bat avg1 = 12.00

| 100s/50s1 = –/–

| top score1 = 16

| hidedeliveries = true

| catches/stumpings1 = –/–

| date = 9 January

| year = 2010

| source = http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/20416.html Cricinfo

}}

James Frederick Sutcliffe (14 December 1876 — 14 July 1915) was an English first-class cricketer and Royal Marines officer.

The son of James Sutcliffe and his wife, Alice, he was born in December 1876 at Chatham, Kent.{{cite book|last=McCrery|first=Nigel|title=Final Wicket: Test and First Class Cricketers Killed in the Great War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mphCgAAQBAJ|date=30 July 2015|publisher=Pen and Sword|isbn=978-1473864191|page=113}} He followed his father into the Portsmouth Battalion Royal Marines, initially serving as a non-commissioned officer. Sutcliffe was a well known cricketer in Gosport,Sergt.-Major Sutcliffe Wounded. Portsmouth Evening News. 15 May 1915. p. 8 and later made a single appearance in first-class cricket for Hampshire against Worcestershire at Worcester in the 1911 County Championship.{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6874/First-Class_Matches.html|title=First-Class Matches played by James Sutcliffe|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=7 November 2022|url-access=subscription}} Playing as a middle order batsman, he was dismissed for 16 runs by George Simpson-Hayward in Hampshire's first innings, while in their second innings he was dismissed for 8 runs by John Cuffe.{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/8/8562.html|title=Worcestershire v Hampshire, County Championship 1911|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=7 November 2022|url-access=subscription}}

Sutcliffe served in the Royal Marines in the First World War. He was wounded in action in May 1915, at which point he held the warrant officer rank of sergeant major, with a commission to lieutenant coming in the same month.{{London Gazette|issue=29177|date=1 June 1915|page=5208}} Shortly after he travelled with his battalion to take part in the Gallipoli campaign, where he was killed in action in on or around 14 July 1915, with his body never being discovered or identified. His death was described as a "great loss" to the Portsmouth Cathedral choir. He was survived by his wife, Gladys Rosine Mary nee Mills, whom he married in 1912, and their son, James Denis. Sutcliffe was commemorated at the Helles Memorial and on the war memorial outside St Thomas's Church in Old Portsmouth, which in 1923 became Portsmouth Cathedral.{{cite web|url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/3055173/james-frederick-sutcliffe/|title=Lieutenant James Frederick Sutcliffe|publisher=www.cwgc.org|accessdate=7 November 2022}}