Lancelot Grove
{{short description|English cricketer and British Army officer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox cricketer
| name =
| image =
| country = England
| fullname = Lancelot Townley Grove
| birth_date = 22 August 1905
| birth_place = Satara, Bombay Presidency,
British India
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1943|2|9|1905|8|22}}
| death_place = Gander, Newfoundland
| nickname =
| family =
| batting = Unknown
| bowling = Unknown
| role =
| club1 =
| year1 =
| columns = 1
| column1 = First-class
| matches1 = 4
| runs1 = 332
| bat avg1 = 47.42
| 100s/50s1 = 1/2
| top score1 = 106
| deliveries1 = 42
| wickets1 = 1
| bowl avg1 = 22.00
| fivefor1 = –
| tenfor1 = –
| best bowling1 = 1/11
| catches/stumpings1 = 1/–
| date = 3 March
| year = 2019
| source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/13807.html Cricinfo
}}
Lancelot Townley Grove (22 August 1905 – 9 February 1943) was an English first-class cricketer and British Army officer. Attending the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Grove was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1925. He later played first-class cricket for the British Army and the Combined Services cricket team in the last 1930s. He served in the Second World War, during which he was killed in a plane crash in 1943.
Life and military career
Grove was born at Satara in what was then British India to Colonel Percy Lynes Grove and his wife, Lorina.{{cite book |last1=McCrery |first1=Nigel |title=The Coming Storm: Test and First-Class Cricketers Killed in World War Two |date=2011 |publisher=Pen and Sword |pages=158–9 |volume=2nd volume |isbn=978-1526706980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RYQwDwAAQBAJ |language=en}} He was educated in England at Charterhouse School, before deciding on a career in the military and attending the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He graduated from Woolwich in September 1925, and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers as a second lieutenant.{{London Gazette |issue=33081|date=4 September 1925|page=5836}} He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in September 1927.{{London Gazette |issue=33308|date=2 September 1927|page=5671}} He had to wait nearly a decade for his not promotion, which came in September 1936 when he was promoted to captain.{{London Gazette |issue=34320|date=4 September 1936|page=5723}}
The following year he made his debut in first-class cricket for the British Army cricket team against the University of Oxford at Oxford,{{cite web|url=http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/29/29834/First-Class_Matches.html |title=First-Class Matches played by Lancelot Grove |publisher=CricketArchive |accessdate=5 March 2019 |url-access=subscription}} narrowly missing out on a century on debut when he was dismissed for 96 by Richard West in the Army's first-innings. He made a further appearance for the Army in 1937, against Cambridge University, with Grove scoring 75 in the Army's first-innings. He also played a first-class match in 1937 for a Combined Services cricket team against the touring New Zealanders at Portsmouth. Grove made a final first-class appearance for the Army against Cambridge University in 1938, making 106 in the Army's first-innings. In four first-class matches, Grove scored 332 runs at an average of 47.42.{{cite web|url=http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/29/29834/29834.html |title=Player profile: Lancelot Grove |publisher=CricketArchive |accessdate=5 March 2019 |url-access=subscription}}
He made an adjutant to Captain G. R. McMeekan in February 1938.{{London Gazette |issue=34499|date=5 April 1938|page=2247}} He served with the Royal Engineers during the Second World War, with him being promoted to the rank of major in September 1942.{{London Gazette |issue=35690|date=1 September 1942|page=3855}} Grove died when the Liberator he was aboard ran out of fuel during blizzard conditions and crashed at Gander in Newfoundland on 9 February 1943.{{cite web|url=http://www.ganderairporthistoricalsociety.org/_html_war/Liberator.htm |title=Liberator AL591 Crash |first=Frank |last=Tibbo |publisher=Gander Airport Historical Society |accessdate=5 March 2019 |url-access=subscription}} He was buried at the Gander War Cemetery. Grove was survived by his wife, Joan Blanche Hill, and their son David, who would later serve as a major general in the British Army.{{cite news|title=Major-General David Anthony Grove, OBE, DL (1941–2005)|date=7 January 2006|work=The Daily Telegraph}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{cricinfo|id=13807}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grove, Lancelot}}
Category:People from Satara (city)
Category:People educated at Charterhouse School
Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
Category:Royal Engineers officers
Category:British Army cricketers
Category:Combined Services cricketers
Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1943
Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Canada
Category:British Army personnel killed in World War II
Category:Military personnel of British India