Eric Pitty Barbour (27 January 18917 December 1934) was an Australian cricket player, physician and author.

Life and career

Barbour was born in Ashfield, Sydney, the son of

George Pitty Barbour George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Preside ...

, a school headmaster. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School, where he was a prolific run scorer in the cricket team. He played for New South Wales and played

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 ...

between 1908 and 1925. His bowling style was

leg break Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

googly In the game of cricket, a googly refers to a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is different from the normal delivery for a leg-spin bowler in that it is turning the other way. The googly is ''not'' a variation of the ...

. He was selected to go to South Africa in 1914 but the tour was cancelled due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He served in the Australian Imperial Force in Egypt, England and France and was demobilized in 1919. He practised medicine at Dorrigo in 1919–23, Stockton in 1923-29 and at

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

until his death. He was also a writer on cricket for the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' and the ''

Sydney Mail Sydney Mailmay refer to: * Sydney Mail (train service), a train service that existed between 1888 and 1972 going from Brisbane to Wallangarra, where passengers would transfer at Wallangarra for the Brisbane Limited. * The Sydney Mail, an Australi ...

'', and published two books on cricket. He married Jessie Nicholson and they had two sons and two daughters. He died at

Darlinghurst Darlinghurst is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district (CBD) and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the City of Sydney. I ...

, Sydney, aged 43. Eric's brother Robert Roy Pitty Barbour (born 1899) was warden of Melbourne University Union from 1940 to 1954 and senior lecturer in classics from 1954 to 1967, and his youngest son

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

was director-general of the

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO ) is Australia's national security agency responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically motivated vio ...

from 1970 to 1975.

Selected publications

*''The Making of a Cricketer: A Handbook for the Young Player with Ambition to Improve'' (1926) *''Anti Body-Line'' (1933) co-authored with

Alan Kippax Alan Falconer Kippax (25 May 1897 – 5 September 1972) was a cricketer for New South Wales (NSW) and Australia. Regarded as one of the great stylists of Australian cricket during the era between the two World Wars, Kippax overcame a late sta ...

References

Australian cricketers New South Wales cricketers 1891 births 1934 deaths Cricketers from Sydney Australian general practitioners Australian cricket writers Australian military personnel of World War I Medical doctors from Sydney {{Australia-cricket-bio-1890s-stub

Life and career

Selected publications

See also

References