George Orde Bigge (13 January 1869 – 26 March 1935) was an

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 ...

first-class

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 str ...

er and

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 ...

officer. Bigge served with the Royal Engineers from 1887 to 1920, seeing action in both the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

and 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 also 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 officia ...

for the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

Life and military career

The son of Major Thomas Scovell Charles Bigge and his wife, Ellen Bigge, he was born at

Ferozepore Firozpur, also known as Ferozepur, is a city on the banks of the Sutlej River in Firozpur District, Punjab, India. After the partition of India in 1947, it became a border town on the India–Pakistan border with memorials to soldiers who died ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy in July 1887, entering into the Royal Engineers as a second lieutenant. He was promoted to the rank of

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

in July 1890, with promotion to the rank of captain in April 1898. Bigge made a single appearance in

for the

(MCC) 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 ...

at Lord's in June 1898. Batting twice in the match, he was dismissed in the MCC first-innings for 11 runs by George Davidson, while in their second-innings he was dismissed by the same bowler for a single run. He also made his debut in minor counties cricket for Hertfordshire in July 1898. He played minor counties cricket for Hertfordshire until 1903, making eleven appearances. He served during the

and was decorated with the

Queen's South Africa Medal The Queen's South Africa Medal is a British campaign medal awarded to British and Colonial military personnel, and to civilians employed in an official capacity, who served in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Altogether twenty-six clasps wer ...

. He was promoted to the rank of major in February 1906. After serving in the

, he held the rank of lieutenant colonel by October 1919. In December 1919 he was made an OBE, before retiring from active service in June 1920. He died in March 1935 at Stone in Oxney, Kent. He was survived by his wife, Eliza Augusta Bigge, whom he had married at Rye in 1906. His brother-in-law, Henry Braybrooke, was also a first-class cricketer.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bigge, George 1869 births 1935 deaths Sportspeople from Firozpur Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Royal Engineers officers English cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Hertfordshire cricketers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British Army personnel of World War I Officers of the Order of the British Empire British people in colonial India