George Bent Buckley (1885 – 26 April 1962) was an English surgeon and a celebrated

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 ...

historian and an authority on the early days of the game. Buckley was born in

Saddleworth Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets as well as suburbs of Oldham on the west side of the Pennine hills. Areas include Austerlands, Del ...

, Yorkshire, the son of Arthur and Jane Buckley, his father was a solicitor. A

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

by profession, he won 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 1916 for working under fire when he was serving with the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

in the

First World War 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 was a senior surgeon at

Manchester Royal Infirmary Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) is a large NHS teaching hospital in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England. Founded by Charles White in 1752 as part of the voluntary hospital movement of the 18th century, it is now a major regional and nati ...

and member of the Manchester Medical Society. Photographs of him as a surgeon and soldier (prisoner of war) are held in the

University of Manchester Library The University of Manchester Library is the library system and information service of the University of Manchester. The main library is on the Oxford Road campus of the university, with its entrance on Burlington Street. There are also ten other ...

Image Collections. After he retired, he devoted his time to researching early

cricket history The sport of cricket has a known history beginning in the late 16th century. Having originated in south-east England, it became an established sport in the country in the 18th century and developed globally in the 19th and 20th centuries. Inte ...

and travelled all over England to visit local libraries. He collected a mass of cricket historical material from old newspapers and dutifully noted every reference he could find relating to 18th century cricket. His researches were consolidated in his two classic books: ''Fresh Light on Eighteenth Century Cricket'' (1935) and ''Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket'' (1937). He moved to

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmixon ...

in 1938 and lived in a Victorian house close to the local cricket ground.

John Arlott Leslie Thomas John Arlott, OBE (25 February 1914 – 14 December 1991) was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's ''Test Match Special''. He was also a poet and wine connoisseur. With his poetic phraseology, he bec ...

states in the 1980 version of ''Barclay's World of Cricket'' that Mr Buckley's researches were continued in volumes of photo-reproduced typescript and manuscript, produced under the aegis of

Rowland Bowen Major Rowland Francis Bowen (27 February 1916 – 4 September 1978) was a British Army officer and a cricket researcher, historian and writer. Educated at Westminster School, Bowen received an emergency commission in April 1942 into the In ...

in 1960.''Barclay's World of Cricket''; 2nd ed., 1980, Collins Publishers, , p. 575. It is probable that even more unpublished notes by Buckley still exist.

Works by G. B. Buckley

* G. B. Buckley, ''Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket'', Cotterell, 1935. * G. B. Buckley, ''Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket'', Cotterell, 1937.

References

External sources

Obituary from 1963 edition of ''Wisden''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckley, G. B. 1885 births 1962 deaths Cricket historians and writers Royal Army Medical Corps officers Recipients of the Military Cross British Army personnel of World War I English surgeons People from Saddleworth 20th-century surgeons