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

writer. He was born in Lahore 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 Cricketer'', July 1976, p. 22. He was a captain in the Royal Sussex Regiment in World War I and authored the ''History of the Royal Sussex Regiment'' (1953).'' Wisden'' 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 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". John Arlott, "Cricket Books, 1950", ''Wisden'' 1951, p. 987. Martineau also contributed to

E. W. Swanton Ernest William Swanton (11 February 1907 – 22 January 2000) was an English journalist and author, chiefly known for being a cricket writer and commentator under his initials, E. W. Swanton. He worked as a sports journalist for ''The Daily T ...

's ''World of Cricket'' and '' The Cricketer'' magazine. His '' Wisden'' 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 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