Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

Godfrey James Bryan (29 December 1902 – 24 March 1991) was an English army officer and

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. A left-handed batsman, he played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

between 1920 and 1935 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 ...

and the Army cricket team.Godfrey Bryan
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-06. His brothers Jack and

Ronnie Ronnie may refer to: *Ronnie (name), a unisex pet name and given name * "Ronnie" (Four Seasons song), a song by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe *"Ronnie," a song from the Metallica album ''Load'' *Ronnie Brunswijkstadion, an association football stadium ...

also played for Kent, though Godfrey was considered as "possibly the most talented" of the three.Bryan, Godfrey James
Obituaries in 1991,

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''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 ...

, 1992. Retrieved 2017-04-06. Bryan rose to the rank of brigadier in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, serving with the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

. He served 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 ...

and was stationed in Malaya during the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

.Seventh Supplement to the London Gazette
''

London Gazette London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

'', 26 May 1953. Retrieved 2017-04-05.

Early life

Bryan was born in Beckenham in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, the son of Lindsay and Emily Bryan. His father was a solicitor.Lewis P (2014) ''For Kent and Country'', pp. 122–123. Brighton: Reveille Press. Bryan showed an early talent for cricket when playing at

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin *Wellington College, Wellington, New Z ...

. After making a string of centuries for the school XI he was referred to by

as the public school batsman of the year who "did wonders in school matches" Pardon S (1921
Dismal failure of the crusade against cricket, 1921
Notes by the Editor, ''

'', 1921. Retrieved 2017-04-05. He made his

debut for

in a

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

match against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

later in the same season, aged just 17, making an immediate impact by scoring a maiden first-class century in the match.First-class matches played by Godfrey Bryan
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-05.

Cricket career

Bryan attending the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Sig ...

between 1921 and 1922, playing cricket in both years against Sandhurst.Miscellaneous matches played by Godfrey Bryan
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-14. The academy was in

and Bryan became a regular member of the Kent county team during the 1921 season, playing nine

matches as well as a match against the touring Australians. His top score of the year was 179 against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, adding 208 runs in only two hours with

Lionel Hedges Lionel Paget Hedges (13 July 1900 – 12 January 1933) was an English amateur cricketer whose feats as a schoolboy at Tonbridge School led him to be named, in 1919, as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.Public School Cricket in 1918, ''Wis ...

. He played 13 times for Kent the following year, after which his Army career meant that his availability for county cricket was limited.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939'', pp. 22–23.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-07-01.) In 1922 Bryan made his first appearance for the

Royal Engineers Cricket Club Garrison 1 Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in Chatham, Kent. The ground is owned by the Ministry of Defence and has been used by military teams throughout its history, being linked with the various military establishments at Chatham. It has be ...

in the annual Sappers vs Gunners match against the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. Bryan also made his debut for the

British Army cricket team The Army cricket team is a cricket side representing the British Army. The Army team played 51 first-class matches between 1912 and 1939, although a combined Army and Navy side had played two games against a combined Oxford and Cambridge team ...

in the same year and played four times for Kent. The Army cricket team had

status during the inter-war period and Bryan was able to play for both the Army and a few times for Kent in most years until the end of the 1929 season. He continued to play for the Army side and the Royal Engineers until 1951, taking part in 14 Gunners vs Sappers matches. Bryan made only three first-class appearances after 1929, playing his final match for Kent in 1933 against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

and his final first-classapperance in 1935 for the Army against

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. He played in a total of 70 first-class matches, scoring 3,192 runs and in club cricket played for Beckenham Cricket Club.Our history
Beckenham Cricket Club. Retrieved 2017-04-15. In 1925 he played alongside both of his brothers for Kent against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, the only time all three played in the same team.Lewis ''

op. cit. ''Op. cit.'' is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase ' or ''opere citato'', meaning "the work cited" or ''in the cited work'', respectively. Overview The abbreviation is used in an endnote or footnote to refer the reader to a cited work, standing ...

'' pp. 123–127.

Military career

After attending

in 1921 and 1922, Bryan joined the

. In the early years of the 1930s he was stationed in the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

, where he played cricket for the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Comp ...

, United Services and Malaya Command between 1930 and 1932. He was stationed again in Malaya during the late 1930s and played for

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

and Straits Settlements. He rose to the rank of

and was stationed in Malaya during the

Family and later life

Two of his brothers, Jack and

, also played

for

. Bryan died at

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

in 1991 aged 88.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryan, Godfrey 1902 births 1991 deaths Sportspeople from Beckenham English cricketers Straits Settlements cricketers Kent cricketers British Army cricketers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Combined Services cricketers Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich British Army personnel of World War II Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of the Malayan Emergency Military personnel from Kent British Army brigadiers