Leslie Wilson (16 March 1859 – 15 April 1944) was an English

stockbroker A stockbroker is a regulated broker, broker-dealer, or registered investment adviser (in the United States) who may provide financial advisory and investment management services and execute transactions such as the purchase or sale of stocks an ...

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 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 ...

between 1883 and 1897. Wilson played in over 100 first-class matches for Kent and scored over 3,000 runs for the county.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 595–597.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-12-21.)

Early life

Wilson was born at Canonbury in London in 1859, the third son of stockbroker Alexander Wilson and his wife Caroline (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Pitman).Carlaw, ''

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 ...

'', p. 594.Steed HE (ed) (1911) ''The Register of Tonbridge School'', p. 158. London: Rivingtons.
Available online
at the

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. Retrieved 2023-10-14.) The family moved from

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

to 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 ...

in 1873 and Wilson, like two of his brothers, was educated at

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

. He opened the batting for Tonbridge in 1876, his final year at school, and played for Beckenham Cricket Club, although despite scoring well in club cricket he was not selected for the Kent side until 1883, the year after his younger brother

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first played county cricket.

Cricket

A batsman who ''

Scores and Biographies Arthur Haygarth (4 August 1825 – 1 May 1903) was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians. He played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club and Sussex between 1844 and 1861, as well as num ...

'' described as having "good style and judgement", Wilson made his

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 ...

debut for Kent in a May 1883 fixture against MCC at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

, scoring 32 runs in the only innings in which Kent batted.Leslie Wilson
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2020-06-06. He played in another seven matches during his first season of top-level cricket, scoring a half-century against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, but was unable to play frequently for the side in 1884 or 1885 due to his business commitments. Wilson worked as a stockbroker like his father and elder brother William. This limited his opportunities to play county cricket, although he was able to take time from work more regularly after 1887―he played in at least seven first-class matches each season between then and 1894, making 15 appearances in 1890 and 1893 and 14 in 1894. He made 18 half-centuries and scored his only first-class century in 1889, a score of 132 against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

during that season's

Canterbury Cricket Week Canterbury Cricket Week is the oldest cricket festival week in England and involves a series of consecutive Kent home matches, traditionally held in the first week in August. It was founded in 1842, although a similar festival week was first hel ...

―an innings which ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' described as "long and brilliant", with the match reporter considering that "a better display of batting has rarely been seen" on the ground.Cricket: The Canterbury Week, Kent v Gloucestershire, ''

'', 9 August 1889, p. 6.
Available online
at

The Times Digital Archive ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

. Retrieved 2023-10-16.) After the 1894 season he played only three more first-class fixtures, two in 1895 and a final match in 1897. As well as 105 first-class matches for Kent, Wilson played five for other sides, including for the Gentlemen of England against

I Zingari I Zingari (from dialectalized Italian , meaning "the Gypsies"; corresponding to standard Italian ') are English and Australian amateur cricket clubs, founded in 1845 and 1888 respectively. It is the oldest and perhaps the most famous of the 'wa ...

in 1888, and in two matches for both The South and MCC against the touring Australians in 1893. He made a total of 3,554 first-class runs, 3,459 of them for Kent, and took six wickets with his right-arm medium-pace deliveries.Leslie Wilson

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. Retrieved 2023-10-15. Wilson played club cricket for a number of sides, scoring double centuries for Beckenham―including a score of 246

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

made in an opening partnership of 470 runs with WG Wyld in 1885Death Of Mr. Leslie Wilson, ''

'', 21 April 1944, p. 6
Available online
at

. Retrieved 2023-10-16.)―and at least four centuries for Band of Brothers, an amateur club closely associated with the Kent county club. His '' Wisden'' obituary described him as an aggressive batsman "always looking for runs" whose "cuts and drives to either side of the wicket made by perfect timing marked every innings of any length that he played", whilst commenting that "he sometimes erred in rashness" due to the aggressive nature of his batting.Wilson, Mr Leslie, Obituaries in 1944, ''

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 ...

'', 1945.
Available online
at

. Retrieved 2023-10-15.) An obituary in ''The Times'', however, described him as "a sound defensive batsman" who could "hit well when set".

Later life and family

Wilson married Ida Eshall at Esher in 1886. The couple had two children and lived at

Norbiton Norbiton is an area within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, London. It lies approximately east of Kingston upon Thames town centre, and from Charing Cross. Its main landmarks include Kingston Hospital, Kingsmeadow football stadium, ...

for most of their married life. Ida died in 1935 and later in life Wilson lived at

Rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is u ...

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 ...

. He died at nearby

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

in 1944 aged 85.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Leslie 1859 births 1944 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers North v South cricketers C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers