Edmund Henry Lacon Willes (7 July 1832 – 9 September 1896) was an English

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 ...

er who played in the 1850s and 1860s as a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who bowled right-arm

roundarm In cricket, roundarm bowling is a bowling style that was introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century and largely superseded underarm bowling by the 1830s. Using a roundarm action, the bowlers extend their arm about 90 degrees from their ...

fast. He became a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

cleric.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 576–577.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 8 August 2022.) Willes was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

, where he represented the college cricket team, and at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he was an exhibitioner at Queen's College from 1850 to 1853, a scholar from 1854 to 1856 and a fellow from 1856 to 1865.

Cricket career

Willes played cricket for a variety of amateur teams over a period of 17 years. He made his first-class debut for a Hampshire team against an

All-England Eleven In English cricket since the first half of the 18th century, various ''ad hoc'' teams have been formed for short-term purposes which have been called England (or sometimes "All-England"; i.e., in the sense of "the rest of England") to play against, ...

in 1850. Between 1851 and 1854, he played for

, appearing three times in

the University Match The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. From 2001, as part of the reorganisation of first-class cricket, ...

against

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. He also appeared for amateur sides representing

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

between 1851 and 1855 and in one of these, a match between the Gentlemen of Kent and the Gentlemen of England in 1851, he scored 69, which was his highest first-class score. The following year, 1852, he took four

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

wickets in an innings for Oxford, though his precise figures are not recorded; this was the only time he took four wickets in an innings. Ten years after his previous first-class appearance, Willes made his debut for

Hampshire County Cricket Club Hampshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Hampshire. Hampshire teams formed by earlier organisations, principal ...

against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

in 1865, and he then played in two further games for MCC, one in each of the next two seasons. In Willes' overall first-class career he scored 416 runs at a batting average of 13.86; with the ball he took 20 wickets, though incomplete figures for several matches mean his average is not known.

Clerical career

Willes was an assistant master at Winchester College from 1860 to 1865 and rector of St Swithin's Church, Winchester from 1863 to 1865. He was then successively vicar at

Helston, Cornwall Helston ( kw, Hellys) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the The Lizard, Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmout ...

and

Ashby Magna Ashby Magna is a small English village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire. The parish has a population of 294, increasing at the 2011 census to 347. It is in the west of the district, and lies midway between junctio ...

in Leicestershire before being appointed rector of

Monk Sherborne Monk Sherborne is a village in north Hampshire, England. Sherborne Priory is the burial place of William of Drogheada. Governance Monk Sherborne is a civil parish and is part of the Sherborne St. John ward of Basingstoke and Deane borough counc ...

, Hampshire in 1887. From 1871 he was an honorary canon of

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

. He died at Monk Sherborne on 9 September 1896.

Family

Willes was the third surviving son of George Wickens Willes, a captain in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, by his wife Anne Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edmund Lacon, 1st Baronet. His elder brother was Admiral George Ommanney Willes, Royal Navy

Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. The commanders-in-chief were based at premises in High Street, Portsmouth from the 1790s until the end of Sir Thomas Williams's tenure, his succe ...

.Burke's Landed Gentry, 18th Ed., 1969, vol. II, 'Willes formerly of Newbold Comyn' pedigree Willes' distant cousin

George Willes Admiral Sir George Ommanney Willes (19 June 1823 – 18 February 1901) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. Early life Born at Hythe, Hampshire in 1823, Willes was the son of Captain George Willes, RN, by ...

represented

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in five first-class matches.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Willes, Edmund 1832 births 1896 deaths People from New Forest District People educated at Winchester College Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford English cricketers Hampshire cricketers Oxford University cricketers Kent cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of Kent cricketers People from Basingstoke and Deane