William Nicol Carson (16 July 1916 – 8 October 1944) was a New Zealand sportsman who represented his country at both

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

Early life and family

Born in Gisborne on 16 July 1916,Bill Carson

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 9 October 2022. Carson was the son of Mabel Alice Carson (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Scoullar) and her husband Alexander John Carson, the Gisborne harbourmaster. He was educated at

Gisborne Boys' High School Gisborne Boys' High School is a boys' secondary school situated in Gisborne, New Zealand. It was founded as a co-educational school in 1909 as Gisborne High School. In 1956, the school became Gisborne Boys' High School when it was split into two ...

from 1929 to 1933, where he played in the school's 1st XV rugby team in 1933, as well as in the 1st XI cricket team. Carson married Marie Patricia Jeffries at St Luke's Church, in the Auckland suburb of

Remuera Remuera is an affluent inner city suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located four kilometres southeast of the city centre. Remuera is characterised by many large houses, often Edwardian or mid 20th century. A prime example of a "leafy" sub ...

, on 13 August 1940. The couple were to have no children.

Cricket

Carson, an aggressive left-handed batsman and useful fast-medium bowler, started his

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

ing career with large scores for

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

in the

Plunket Shield New Zealand has had a domestic first-class cricket championship since the 1906–07 season. Since the 2009–10 season it has been known by its original name of the Plunket Shield. History The Plunket Shield competition was instigated in Octob ...

in the 1936/37 season. In his second match, just his second innings of first-class cricket, Carson scored 290 against

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

Carisbrook Carisbrook (sometimes incorrectly referred to as Carisbrook Stadium) was a major sporting venue in Dunedin, New Zealand. The city's main domestic and international rugby union venue, it was also used for other sports such as cricket, football, ...

, part of a 445 run partnership with Paul Whitelaw. The pair set a world record for the third wicket in first-class cricket.Carson, Major WN M.C.
Deaths in the War 1944, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 1945. Retrieved 9 October 2022. Carson's score of 290 is still the highest maiden hundred scored by a New Zealander. In his next match, against

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...

, Carson made 194, giving him an aggregate of 496 runs and an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 165.33 after three innings. His record aggregate total across his first three innings in first-class cricket stood until February 2022, when Sakibul Gani made 540 runs in his first three innings during the

2021–22 Ranji Trophy The 2021–22 Ranji Trophy, is scheduled to be the 87th season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament in India. The tournament will be split into two phases, with the league stage being played from 17 February to 15 Marc ...

. His performances with Auckland earned him a call up to the national side for their tour of England in 1937. Although he played 24 matches, all but four of them first-class fixtures, Carson wasn't able to break into the Test side which took on the England side. He had started the tour well, with 85 runs against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and 86 versus

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

but he failed to contribute substantial scores in most matches. Carson finished the tour with 627 runs at 19.00.

Rugby union

When Carson returned to New Zealand he focused on rugby, playing provincially with and for the North Island representative team as a flanker. As with his cricket career, he represented his country at rugby without appearing at Test level. He made his

All Black The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

s debut on 20 July 1938 for a game against the Combined Western Districts. Carson then joined the New Zealand camp for a tour of Australia and played matches against Newcastle and the ACT.

World War II

Carson embarked on war duty in 1940 and went on to participate in the Crete, North African and Italian campaigns. While serving in Italy with the 5th Field Regiment of the NZ Artillery, as a major, Carson was severely wounded in battle. He was evacuated but died from jaundice aboard ship whilst being taken from

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

in Southern Italy to Egypt. He was buried at the

Heliopolis War Cemetery Heliopolis War Cemetery (which includes the Heliopolis (Port Tewfik) Memorial and the Heliopolis (Aden) Memorial) is a war cemetery in the Heliopolis district of Cairo, Egypt for British and Commonwealth service personnel. It is maintained by the ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. A distinguished soldier, Carson was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

in June 1943, and was

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

Early life and family

Cricket

Rugby union

World War II

References

Further reading