Gerald Durani Martineau (1897 – 29 May 1976) was a prolific

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

writer. He was born in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

and educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

and

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

.''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county and club cricket. The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cricket writer. Warner e ...

'', July 1976, p. 22. He was a captain in the

Royal Sussex Regiment The Royal Sussex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foot ...

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 ...

and authored the ''History of the Royal Sussex Regiment'' (1953).''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' 1977, p. 1046. He worked for many years as a schoolmaster. Martineau's notable works on cricket include ''Bat, Ball, Wicket and All'' (1950), on the history of cricket implements; ''They Made Cricket'' (1956), on innovators in cricket from 1727 up to the first television broadcast in 1938; ''The Valiant Stumper'', on the history of wicket-keeping; and ''The Field is Full of Shades'' (1946), on early cricketers in the period before 1800.

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 ...

wrote that Martineau's "sympathy with his subject is sufficiently clear-headed to enable him to write of the early cricketers without sentimentality but with an understanding rarely equalled since Nyren".

, "Cricket Books, 1950", ''Wisden'' 1951, p. 987. Martineau also contributed to E. W. Swanton's ''World of Cricket'' and ''

'' magazine. His ''

'' obituary opines that his books "were not works of much original research" but, "pleasantly written, they were ideally calculated to arouse the interest of the novice and spur him on to try for himself the masterpieces". Martineau died at

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Herita ...

in 1976 at the age of 79 after a long illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martineau, G. D. 1897 births 1976 deaths People educated at Charterhouse School British Army personnel of World War I Cricket historians and writers Writers from Lahore Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Royal Sussex Regiment officers British people in colonial India Military personnel of British India