Charles Arthur Blake McVittie (30 July 1908 – 4 September 1973) was an English amateur

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 ...

er who played in four first-class cricket matches during the 1929 season. McVittie was born at Rugeley in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, the son of Arthur and Margaret McVittie. Both of his parents were born in

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

, although his paternal grandfather was a surgeon general in the Indian Medical Service and spent much of his working life in India, serving in wars in Afghanistan and Burma.Charles Arthur Blake MCVITTIE
North Isles Family History. Retrieved 2020-12-22. His father was a doctor and the family moved to Aldington in Kent during McVittie's childhood. McVittie was educated at

Bedford School :''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.'' Bedford School is a public school (English indep ...

and

Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

, although he was only at Cambridge for four terms and left the university without graduating.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939'', pp.116–117.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-12-21.)McVittie, Charles Arthur Blake
Obituaries in 1973, '' Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1974. Retrieved 2018-12-08.Charles McVittie

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. Retrieved 2018-12-08. He played cricket as a wicket-keeper for his school from 1924 to 1927, heading the school's batting averages in 1925 and 1926 when he was described as Bedford's best batsman "with strokes and a very watchful defence". He was chosen to keep wicket in the annual Rest v Lord's Schools match and for Young Amateurs v Young Professionals in his final year at school and played Second XI cricket for Kent whilst still a schoolboy.Altham HS (1928) Public School Cricket in 1927, '' Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1928, p.338.
Available online
Retrieved 2020-12-22.) He went up to Cambridge in 1927. He did not win a Blue, but played in three first-class matches for the university during 1929, making his debut against

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in May. Later the same season he played one County Championship match for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

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, having impressed with the bat in Second XI matches.Charles McVittie
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-12-08. After having "some success" as a racehorse trainer, McVittie served in the Welsh Guards during World War II. He finished the war as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

and was awarded an

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for his war service in north-west Europe. He later worked in the air transport industry. McVittie married Everill Stobbs in 1932; the couple had three children. He died at Stowting Common in Kent in 1973 aged 65.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:McVittie, Charles 1908 births 1973 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers Cambridge University cricketers British Army personnel of World War II Welsh Guards officers British racehorse trainers People from Rugeley Cricketers from Staffordshire