Wilfred Curwen

{{short description|English cricketer and Royal Fusilier}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2017}}

{{Infobox cricketer

| name = Wilfred Curwen

| image =

| caption =

| country =

| fullname = Wilfred John Hutton Curwen

| nickname =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1883|4|14|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Beckenham, Kent, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1915|5|9|1883|4|14|df=yes }}

| death_place = near Poperinghe, Ypres salient, Belgium

| batting = Right-handed

| bowling = Right-arm fast-medium

| role =

| family =

| club1 = Oxford University

| year1 = 1906

| club2 = Surrey

| year2 = 1909

| columns = 1

| column1 = First-class

| matches1 = 25

| runs1 = 511

| bat avg1 = 13.10

| 100s/50s1 = 0/1

| top score1 = 76

| deliveries1 = 1720

| wickets1 = 26

| bowl avg1 = 32.73

| fivefor1 = 1

| tenfor1 = 0

| best bowling1 = 5/81

| catches/stumpings1= 12/–

| source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/11504.html Cricinfo

| date = 29 July 2019

}}

Captain Wilfred John Hutton Curwen (14 April 1883 – 9 May 1915) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Oxford University, Surrey and MCC between 1906 and 1910. He was born in Beckenham and died near Poperinghe, Belgium, on active service during World War I.{{cricinfo|id=11504}}

Curwen was educated at Charterhouse School and Magdalen College, Oxford. At Oxford he was a double blue in cricket and association football.{{cite web |title=Wilfred Curwen |url=http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/28/28906/28906.html |website=CricketArchive |accessdate=29 July 2019}} One of the team of amateur MCC cricketers that toured New Zealand in 1906-07, Curwen was described before the tour thus: "Plays all the games, is very popular with the ladies, and dances divinely."{{cite journal |title=English Cricket Team |journal=Evening Post |date=1 December 1906 |page=5 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19061201.2.34}} He made his highest first-class score in the tour match against Canterbury, when he went to the wicket with the score at 54 for 6 and made a dashing 76 in 77 minutes, taking the total to 200 before he was last out.{{cite journal |title=The English Cricketers |journal=Evening Post |date=31 December 1906 |page=2 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19061231.2.10}}{{cite journal |title=Cricket: Canterbury v. Englishmen |journal=Press |date=31 December 1906 |page=4 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19061231.2.13}}

Curwen joined the London Regiment as a lieutenant in 1911. He went to Australia, where he served as aide-de-camp to the Governor of Victoria, Sir John Fuller, and two Governors-General of Australia, Baron Denman and Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson. When the First World War began he returned to Great Britain and joined the Royal Fusiliers. He was killed in action in the Second Battle of Ypres.Nigel McCrery, Final Wicket: Test and First Class Cricketers Killed in the Great War, Pen and Sword Books, Barnsley, 2015, p. 86.

References

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