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Geoffrey Anson

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Geoffrey Anson
Personal information
Full name
Geoffrey Frank Anson
Born(1922-10-08)8 October 1922
Sevenoaks, Kent, England
Died4 December 1977(1977-12-04) (aged 55)
Hastings, Sussex, England
BattingRight-handed
RoleBatsman
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1947Cambridge University
1947Kent
FC debut10 May 1947 Cambridge University v Essex
Last FC23 August 1947 Kent v Somerset
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 10
Runs scored 460
Batting average 25.55
100s/50s 1/2
Top score 106
Catches/stumpings 6/0
Source: CricInfo, 19 March 2017

Geoffrey Frank Anson (8 October 1922 – 4 December 1977) was an English cricketer and civil servant.[1] A right-handed batsman, he played ten first-class cricket matches during the 1947 English cricket season for Cambridge University and Kent County Cricket Club.[2] He also played cricket for a team of Europeans in Nigeria whilst serving in the British Colonial Service.

Early life and war service

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Anson was born at Sevenoaks in Kent in 1922 and educated at Harrow School, where he played cricket and captained the side during his final season in 1941.[3] Wisden considered that he might have been the "best schoolboy batsman of the year" and described him as being a "daring stroke player".[4] He initially went up to the University of Cambridge in 1941 and played cricket for the university side during the summer of 1942,[5] before serving in the armed forces during World War II. He was commissioned in the Coldstream Guards as a 2nd Lieutenant in April 1943[6] and served in the 4th Battalion, part of the Guards Armoured Division.[7] He was awarded the Military Cross in May 1945 whilst serving as a Lieutenant.[8] Anson was serving as a tank commander during Operation Veritable, an offensive along the Siegfried Line on the Dutch-German border near Nijmegen in February. He had dismounted to organise mine clearance parties to allow the capture of Frasselt by the 9th Cameronians.[9]

Cricket and later life

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He went back to Cambridge in 1946 before leaving to join the Colonial Service the following summer.[10][11] Anson made his first-class cricket debut for the university against Essex in May 1947[2] and was set to win a Blue before "the claims of the Colonial Service forced him to withdraw from the side and he was unable to play in the University match".[11] Later in the year he played seven County Championship matches for Kent, his last first-class match coming against Somerset in August.[2]

Anson worked in the Colonial Service and played a number of matches for Nigeria Europeans against Gold Coast Europeans between 1949 and 1956.[5][10] He later played for the Kent Second XI between 1957 and 1959[2] and worked as an area manager for the Ford Motor Credit Company based in London.[7] He died at Hastings in 1977 aged 55.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Geoffrey Anson, CricInfo. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  2. ^ a b c d Geoffrey Anson, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-09-16. (subscription required)
  3. ^ Cartwright GHM Lt-Col The Public Schools, 1941, in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, pp.239-247. Retrieved 2018-09-16. (Archived version. Archived 2018-09-16.)
  4. ^ Cartwright, p.243.
  5. ^ a b Miscellaneous matches played by Geoffrey Anson, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-09-16. (subscription required)
  6. ^ Supplement to the London Gazette, 11 May 1943, p.2109. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  7. ^ a b Anson, Geoffrey Frank, British Army Officers, 1939-1945. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  8. ^ Supplement to the London Gazette, 24 May 1945, p.2648. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  9. ^ Paget J (ed) (2000) The Reichswald and Rhineland: Operation VERITABLE, February-March 1945. 4th (Tank) and 5th Battalions, in The Coldstream Guards, 1650–2000, p.138. Lee Cooper: Barnsley.
  10. ^ a b Morgan R (2016) 'West Africa goes multiracial' in Real International Cricket: A History in One Hundred Scorecards. (Available online. Retrieved 2018-09-16.)
  11. ^ a b Anson, Geoffrey Frank, MC, Obituaries before 1978, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1979. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
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Geoffrey Anson at ESPNcricinfo