John Symes (11 January 1879 – 23 September 1944) was a member of the gold medal winning Great Britain Olympic cricket team at the 1900 Olympic Games.
Personal life
Symes was born 11 January 1879 in
Crediton, Devon
Crediton is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about north west of Exeter and around from the M5 motor ...
. He was educated at
Queen Elizabeth's School, Crediton
Queen Elizabeth's School is an academy school, with a sixth-form, in Crediton, Devon. It has 1300 students. It was formed as a comprehensive school in the early 1970s by a merger of The Shelley Secondary Modern with the Queen Elizabeth's Gr ...
and
Blundell's School
Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the tim ...
in
Tiverton. He worked as a solicitor in Crediton and eventually took over his father's practice.
He was also clerk to Creditor Urban District Council for more than forty years.
He served in 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 ...
in the 6th Battalion Devonshire Regiment and was awarded the OBE in 1919 for his service. He died of a heart attack while out shooting on a local farm in Crediton on 23 September 1944, he was 65
Cricket career
He was a keen cricketer and captained his local side, he also played for the Devon Dumplings.
He represented the gold medal winning Great Britain cricket team at the
1900 Summer Olympics
The 1900 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1900, link=no), today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad () and also known as Paris 1900, were an international multi-sport event that took place in Paris, France, from 1 ...
, the only time cricket has featured in the Olympics. In the only match against
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, he scored 15 runs in Great Britain's first innings and just one run in the second.
References
External links
*
Olympic final scorecard
English cricketers
English Olympic medallists
1879 births
1944 deaths
Olympic cricketers for Great Britain
Cricketers at the 1900 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Medalists at the 1900 Summer Olympics
People from Crediton
People educated at Blundell's School
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