Lionel Holmes Wood Troughton (17 May 1879 – 31 August 1933) was an English amateur

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 first-class cricket 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 ...

either side of 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 ...

. Primarily a

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

, Troughton was

club captain The team captain of an association football team, sometimes known as the skipper, is a team member chosen to be the on-pitch leader of the team; they are often one of the older or more experienced members of the squad, or a player that can heavi ...

of Kent between 1914 and 1923.Lionel Troughton
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-27. He served in the

Rifle Brigade The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...

during the

, rising to the rank of

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

and being awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

Early life

Troughton was born in

Seaford, East Sussex Seaford is a town in East Sussex, England, east of Newhaven and west of Eastbourne.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. In the Middle Ages, Sea ...

in 1879, the son of William and Kate Troughton. His father was a wine and spirits merchant who later became a solicitor at

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

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 ...

, a profession which his son followed him into.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp.536–539.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...

. Retrieved 2021-07-21.) He attended

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

and played cricket for the school First XI during 1897.Troughton, Lieut-Colonel Lionel Holmes Wood - Obituaries in 1933
''

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 ...

'', 1934. Retrieved 2016-04-27.

Cricket career

Troughton first played for Kent's Second XI in 1900, but did not make 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 until 1907 when he appeared against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

at the

County Ground, Leyton Leyton Cricket Ground (formerly known as the County Ground or the Lyttelton Ground) is a cricket ground in Leyton, London. The ground was the headquarters and main home match venue of Essex County Cricket Club from 1886 until 1933, and was also ...

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 in June.First-class matches played by Lionel Troughton
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-27. He played only occasionally for Kent until 1913, never making more than five appearances for the First XI in any season,
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-27. but played regularly for the Second XI, captaining them for a number of years.Lewis P (2016) "Kent's Cricketers during 1916" in Reid J (ed) ''2016 Kent County Cricket Club Annual'',

, pp.65–68. Troughton went on a

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 ...

(MCC) tour of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

led by

Archie MacLaren Archibald Campbell MacLaren (1 December 1871 – 17 November 1944) was an English cricketer who captained the England cricket team at various times between 1898 and 1909. A right-handed batsman, he played 35 Test matches for England, as ...

in 1911–12. He played in all three first-class matches on the tour, the first first-class matches played by

, and scored a century in another match against Combined Camps in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. In 1914 Troughton succeeded

Ted Dillon Edward Wentworth Dillon (15 February 1881 – 20 April 1941) was an English amateur sportsman in the early years of the 20th century. He played over 200 first-class cricket matches, mainly for Kent County Cricket Club between 1900 and 1913. Dil ...

as Kent captain, a post he held until 1923. He played much more regularly for the First XI as captain, making 30 first-class appearances in 1914 and at least 18 in each year he was captain. He scored 776 runs in 1914 and 761 in 1921, his best seasons, although his

Wisden ''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 ...

obituary described him as "never a very prominent batsman". Troughton did prove, however, to be a "capable captain". He was appointed captain of an MCC team of

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

s to tour New Zealand in 1920–21, but plans for the tour had to be abandoned when the

New Zealand Cricket Council New Zealand Cricket, formerly the New Zealand Cricket Council, is the governing body for professional cricket in New Zealand. Cricket is the most popular and highest profile summer sport in New Zealand. New Zealand Cricket operates the New Z ...

was unable to raise sufficient money.Cricket tour of N.Z.: Project abandoned, ''Auckland Star'', p. 7, 11 September 1920.
Available online
Retrieved 2021-07-17.) His final first-class season was in 1923 after which he became the club's general manager, succeeding Tom Pawley in the post. He held this post until his death in 1933. He was succeeded as club captain by Stanley Cornwallis.

Military career

Troughton was commissioned, initially as a second lieutenant, in the

Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...

during the

. He served with the 10th (Service) Battalion on the Western Front from 1915, rising to command the battalion with the rank of

. In September 1916, whilst a company commander, he was awarded the

for leading his men in an attack at

Guillemont Guillemont () is a commune approximately east of Albert in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. It, like much of the surrounding area, is primarily an agricultural community, but is known for its large Commonwealth War ...

with "conspicuous gallantry", as well as a Légion d'honneur, Croix d'Officiers, the first to be awarded in XIV Corps.The History of the Rifle Brigade in the war of 1914-1918
p.96. Retrieved 2016-04-27.

Sandford C Sandford may refer to: People * Baron Sandford * Baron Mount Sandford * Sandford (surname) * Sandford Fleming (1827-1915), Scottish-Canadian engineer and inventor of Standard Time Places Australia * Sandford, Tasmania * Sandford, Victoria Canad ...

(2014) ''The Final Over: The Cricketers of Summer 1914'', The History Press.
Available online
retrieved 2016-04-27.) He was captured and made a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

during a German attack at

Cambrai Cambrai (, ; pcd, Kimbré; nl, Kamerijk), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department and in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, regio ...

in 1917,Horsfall J, Cave N (1999) ''Cambrai: The Right Hook'', p.75, Casemate Publishers.
Available online
retrieved 2016-04-27.) and was decommissioned at the end of the war.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Troughton, Lionel 1879 births 1933 deaths British World War I prisoners of war World War I prisoners of war held by Germany English cricketers Kent cricketers Kent cricket captains People educated at Dulwich College People from Seaford, East Sussex Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers British Army personnel of World War I Rifle Brigade officers Military personnel from Sussex Recipients of the Military Cross H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers L. G. Robinson's XI cricketers