Ernest Meade Smythe (25 March 1904 – 9 July 1975) was an English

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 and

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

officer. His

batting Batting may refer to: *Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs *Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ru ...

and

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

styles are unknown. He was born in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

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 ...

and educated at Allhallows School in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. Smythe played for

in the 1928

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

, playing three matches against the Kent Second XI, the Surrey Second XI and

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. In November 1930, he played his only first-class match for the Bengal Governor's XI against the Maharaj Kumar of Vizianagram's XI at

Eden Gardens The Eden Gardens is a cricket ground in Kolkata, India. Established in 1864, it is the oldest and second-largest cricket stadium in India and third-largest in the world. The stadium currently has a capacity of 66,000. Eden Gardens is often re ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. In the Bengal first-innings he scored 1 run before being dismissed by Ghulam Mohammad and in their second-innings he scored 6 runs before being dismissed by

Mushtaq Ali Syed Mushtaq Ali (; 17 December 1914 – 18 June 2005) was an Indian cricketer, a right-handed opening batsman who holds the distinction of scoring the first overseas Test century by an Indian player when he scored 112 against England at Old Tr ...

. With the ball he took a single wicket, that of C.R. Nayudu for the cost of 19 runs. With the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

declaration of war against the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Smythe was drafted into the

as an emergency commission in February 1942, holding the rank of

2nd Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

. He died in

St Columb Major St Columb Major is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as ''St Columb'', it is approximately southwest of Wadebridge and east of Newquay Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 ''Newquay ...

on 9 July 1975.

References

External links

Ernest Smythe
at

ESPNcricinfo 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 ...

Ernest Smythe
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Smythe, Ernest 1904 births 1975 deaths People from Ealing Cricketers from the London Borough of Ealing English cricketers Devon cricketers British Indian Army officers Indian Army personnel of World War II People educated at Allhallows College