Martin Dewe Corke

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 ...

(8 June 1923 – 14 January 1994) was an English

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. Corke was a right-handed batsman. He was also a prominent member of the Greene King Brewery.

Early life

A member of the Greene brewing dynasty, Corke was born at the hill station of Murree in the British Raj, where his father, then Captain Francis Sinclair Corke, was serving with the 1st battalion

16th Punjab Regiment The 16th Punjab Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army from 1922 to 1947. Upon the Partition of India, it was transferred to the newly-raised Pakistan Army. It ceased to exist in this form in 1956, when it was amalgamated ...

. He was sent home from the Raj to be educated in England, where he attended

Radley School Radley College, formally St Peter's College, Radley, is a Public school (UK), public school (independent boarding school for boys) near Radley, Oxfordshire, England, which was founded in 1847. The school covers including playing fields, a golf ...

, during which time he captained the school's cricket team. By age fifteen he was working at the family brewery in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

, Suffolk. However, with the start of World War II in 1939, Corke returned to the Raj to be with his parents. He was commissioned in his father's

in 1942 then later promoted lieutenant. In 1944, he was struck down with tuberculosis, which ended his time in the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

Cricket and later life

Returning to England, he married Jean Armour, daughter of artist

George Denholm Armour George Denholm Armour (1864–1949) was a British painter and illustrator.Horace Laffaye, ''Polo in Britain: A History'', Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2012, pp. 145-146 During his career he made hundreds of illustratio ...

, in 1946. He made his debut for

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

against

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

in that same seasons

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

. He played regularly for Suffolk throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, making a total of 105 appearances for the county, the last of which came against Cambridgeshire in 1964. He scored over 3,000 runs for the county, as well as captaining it for eleven seasons from 1954 to 1964. Corke also played first-class cricket for the Free Foresters, making his first-class debut against Cambridge University at Fenner's in 1953. He made four further first-class appearances for the Free Foresters, the last of which came against Oxford University at the University Parks in 1958. He scored 116 runs in his five first-class matches, at an average of 11.60 and a high score of 53, his only first-class half century. His commitments to the brewery saw him become a director of Greene King, during which himself and his fellow directors resisted takeover manoeuvres from larger rivals; his directorship saw him have notable success as marketing director. In 1961, he became a magistrate, while he began work alongside his business commitments for the West Suffolk Health Authority, leading to his chairmanship of the organisation from 1982 to 1993, working which he later received an

for his services to the National Health Service in the Queen's

1993 Birthday Honours The 1993 Queen's Birthday honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of the Queen's b ...

. He held further positions as chairman of St Edmundsbury Bench as chairman of Suffolk County Cricket Club. He died at from cancer at

, Suffolk on 14 January 1994. His uncle Ronald Lake also played first-class cricket.

References

External links

Martin Corke
at ESPNcricinfo
Martin Corke
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Corke, Martin 1923 births 1994 deaths People from Murree People educated at Radley College British Indian Army officers English cricketers Suffolk cricketers Suffolk cricket captains Free Foresters cricketers English cricket administrators English brewers Members of the Order of the British Empire Deaths from cancer in England 20th-century English businesspeople Indian Army personnel of World War II