Captain Gerald de Lisle Hough (14 May 1894 – 29 September 1959) was an English amateur

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 who played for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

. He served in the Royal West Kent Regiment during World War I and worked as Manager and Secretary of Kent between 1933 and 1949. As of 2017, he is one of only three Kent players to have taken a wicket with his first ball in first-class cricket.

Early life

Hough was born at Brompton in London in 1894, the second son of Alfred and Mildred Hough. His father was born in British India and had been a colonial administrator with the British Burma Commission and in Karachi. He taught

Burmese Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (hor ...

at University College London.Lewis P (2013) ''For Kent and Country'' pp.158–165. Brighton: Reveille Press. Hough was educated at Winchester College where he was in the school cricket XI between 1911 and 1913, captaining the team in his final year.Gerald Hough

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. Retrieved 2017-11-13.Hough, Captain Gerald de Lisle
Obituaries in 1959, '' Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1960. Retrieved 2017-11-13.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939'', pp.93–95.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-07-01.) He also played association football for Winchester.

Military service

Hough volunteered at the start of World War I and was commissioned as a temporary

Second 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 ...

in November 1914. He joined the 8th battalion Royal West Kent Regiment (RWK) soon afterwards and was appointed as a Bombing Officer. After a period of training the battalion embarked for France in August 1915. Hough fought at the Battle of Loos in September 1915 and was wounded near the village of

Hulluch Hulluch () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography An ex-coalmining town, now a farming commune, situated some north of Lens, at the junction of the D947 and the D39 roads. History The cha ...

. He spent nearly a year recovering from his wounds in England and played in a fundraising cricket match for his regiment against Southwark Park Cricket Club in 1916. His batting was described as "brilliant" during the match.''The Queens Own Gazette'', no. 492, July 1916, p.3521.
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Retrieved 2017-11-14). On returning to France in July 1916, Hough joined the 6th Battalion of the RWK at

Vauchelles Vauchelles () is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. See also *Communes of the Oise department The following is a list of the 679 communes of the Oise department of France. The communes cooperate in the following intercomm ...

. He was wounded by artillery fire in August,''The Queen's Own Gazette'', no. 493, September 1916, p.3537.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-11-14). a day after moving into the front line, and spent the remainder of the war in the UK. After being appointed temporary Lieutenant in July 1917 he served in a Special Reserve battalion at Wendover''The Queen's Own Gazette'', no. 509, December 1917, p.3711.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-11-14). and as

Assistant Provost marshal Provost marshal is a title given to a person in charge of a group of Military Police (MP). The title originated with an older term for MPs, '' provosts'', from the Old French ''prévost'' (Modern French ''prévôt''). While a provost marshal i ...

in Cambridge and Bovington, ending the war with the rank of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

.''The Queens Own Gazette'', no. 520, November 1918, p.3855.
Available online
Archived a
Web archive
2017-11-15. Retrieved 2017-11-14). He was

Mentioned in Dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

for his work on the home front and resigned his commission in September 1921, retaining the rank of captain.

Cricket career

Hough played 14 times in first-class matches for Kent in 1919 and 1920 and was awarded his county cap in 1920.Gerald Hough
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-13. He made his first-class cricket debut in May 1919 for

Lionel Robinson Lionel Robinson (29 August 1866 – 27 July 1922) was a leading financier in Australia and England who was known for his success in horseracing and his support of cricket, and later served as the High Sheriff of Norfolk. Early life Born in Colom ...

's XI against the

Australian Imperial Force Touring XI When the First World War ended in November 1918, thousands of Australian servicemen were in Europe as members of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and many remained until the spring of 1919. In England, a new first-class cricket seas ...

Old Buckenham Hall Old Buckenham Hall School (commonly known as OBH) is a day and boarding preparatory school with pre-prep for boys and girls in the village of Brettenham, Suffolk, England. Founded in 1862, the school has been on its current site since 1956, ...

in Norfolk, scoring 30 not out and 87 not out in the match. Seven Kent players were on the same team, including

Lionel Troughton Lionel Holmes Wood Troughton (17 May 1879 – 31 August 1933) was an English amateur cricketer who played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club either side of the First World War. Primarily a batsman, Troughton was club captain of K ...

the Kent captain, and Hough was invited to play for the county side the following month, qualifying through his regimental connections with the RWK. Troughton had also served in the RWK and had captained the regimental team in the war time match in which Hough had played in 1916. Considered mainly as an "aggressive batsman", Hough took his only wicket in first-class cricket with the first ball he bowled on his Kent debut against Essex at Leyton - one of only three Kent players to take a wicket with his first ball in first-class cricket.'Bowling Records' in ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017'' p.205. Canterbury:

. His war wounds restricted his bowling action and he only bowled seven overs of off-spin in his first-class career, all in this match. He was awarded his Kent county cap in 1920.Kent County Cricket Club - Capped Male Players

. Retrieved 2020-12-21. He played twice for Kent's Second XI in the

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 ...

- once in 1920 and once in 1934 - and played in other matches for MCC as well as club cricket for Free Foresters and Band of Brothers.

Later life

After working as a teacher at Bradfield College for ten years, Hough took over the position of Manager at Kent in 1933 following the death of

. From 1935 he combined this with the role of Secretary, working in these capacities for the club until 1949 when he was forced to retire due to ill-health. In his final years working at the club he was largely responsible for the installation of new wrought iron gates at the entrance to the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury as a memorial to the club players who died during World War II. Hough died in hospital at Canterbury in 1959 aged 65.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hough, Gerald 1894 births 1959 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers L. G. Robinson's XI cricketers British Army personnel of World War I Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment officers Military personnel from London People educated at Winchester College