John Robert Tillard (26 May 1924 – 16 December 2019) was an English cricketer. Tillard was a right-handed batsman.

Early life

The younger son of Brigadier John Arthur Stuart Tillard (1889–1975),

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, MC, of The Hooke, Chailey, Sussex, who served with the

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

, and his wife Margaret Penelope, daughter of John Blencowe, of Chailey, Sussex, Tillard was born in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, London in May 1924. Both parents were of landed gentry families, the Tillards being of The Holme, Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire. Tillard was educated at Winchester College.

Military and cricket career

Tillard was enlisted into the British Army as an Emergency Commission in the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...

in 1943. He held the rank of

2nd 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 ...

throughout World War II, following the war he was promoted to lieutenant in April 1947, Tillard made a single first-class cricket appearance for

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

against Oxford University at the University Parks in 1949. In Sussex's first-innings, he was dismissed for 3 runs by

Abdul Kardar Abdul Hafeez Kardar PP, HI ( ur, ) (17 January 1925 – 21 April 1996) was a Pakistani cricketer, politician and diplomat. He was the first captain of the Pakistan cricket team. He is one of the only three players to have played Test crick ...

, while in their second-innings he was dismissed for a duck by

George Chesterton George Herbert Chesterton MBE (15 July 1922 – 3 November 2012) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1949 and 1966. The bulk of his appearances were for Worcestershire, whom he represented between 1950 and 1957. He w ...

. Oxford University won the match by an innings and 9 runs. This was his only major appearance for Sussex. By 1951, he was promoted to

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 ...

, while still serving at this time in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He continued to serve in the Army until at least 1957, the year in which he played 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 ...

against Oxford University, though the match wasn't rated as first-class.

Personal life

Aged 94, Tillard was involved in a dispute with church authorities over their intention to remove Victorian pews from St Peter's Church, Chailey, with which the Tillard and Blencowe families were long associated; the alterations were approved, and he was fined £3,000 for the cost of legal proceedings. He died after a short illness in December 2019 at the age of 95, survived by his widow Ann.Telegraph Deaths Announcements: TILLARD, John Robert (Rob)
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References

External links

at ESPNcricinfo
John Tillard
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Tillard, Rob 1924 births 2019 deaths British Army personnel of World War II English cricketers King's Royal Rifle Corps officers People educated at Winchester College Cricketers from Kensington Sussex cricketers