Major Reginald Oscar Schwarz (4 May 1875 – 18 November 1918), known as Reggie Schwarz, was a South African international
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 and
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
footballer.
Early life
Schwarz was born in
Lee in London in 1875, the son of Robert George Schwarz, a merchant from
Breslau who lived in
Bagshot
Bagshot is a town in the Surrey Heath borough of Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. In the past, Bagshot served as an important staging post between London, Southampton and the West Country, evidenced by the original c ...
in Surrey. Schwarz was educated at
St Paul's School in London, and matriculated to
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...
in 1893.
While at Cambridge he joined the
Cambridge University rugby team and in
the Varsity Match
The Varsity Match is an annual rugby union fixture played between the universities of Oxford University RFC, Oxford and Cambridge University R.U.F.C., Cambridge in England. The event began in 1872 with the first men's match, with interruptions ...
of 1893 he won his only sporting
Blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...
. Although Schwarz became better known as a cricketer than a rugby player, he did not win a Blue for cricket.
Rugby career
Schwarz won three caps for
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
against Scotland in
1899, and Wales and Ireland in
1901
Events
January
* January 1 – The Crown colony, British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and Western Australia Federation of Australia, federate as the Australia, ...
. At club level, Schwarz played for
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
and in the 1896–97 season was invited to play for
the Barbarians.
Cricket career
Schwarz played a handful of games for
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial ...
in 1901 and 1902 before emigrating to South Africa where he played for
Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal.
* South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...
. It was on his return to England with the
South African cricket team
The South Africa national cricket team, also known as the Proteas, represents South Africa in men's international cricket and is administered by Cricket South Africa (CSA). South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council (I ...
in 1904 that he made his mark, having learned from
Bernard Bosanquet how to bowl the
googly
In the game of cricket, a googly refers to a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is different from the normal delivery for a leg-spin bowler in that it is turning the other way. The googly is ''not'' a variation of the ...
. Unusually, he bowled it as his stock delivery, with considerable success: in 1904 and 1907 he topped the
bowling average
In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...
s, in the latter year taking 137 wickets at just 11.70 apiece, and he was named as a
Wisden Cricketer of the Year
The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...
in 1908. On that 1907 tour, the first on which South Africa played Tests in England, they had no fewer than four leg-break and googly bowlers, Schwarz having passed on the secret of the googly to
Aubrey Faulkner
George Aubrey Faulkner (17 December 1881 – 10 September 1930) was a South African cricketer who played 25 Test cricket, Test matches for South Africa national cricket team, South Africa and fought in both the Second Boer War and World War I. ...
,
Bert Vogler
Albert Edward Ernest Vogler (28 November 1876 – 9 August 1946) was a South African cricketer. A leading all-rounder skilled both at batting and bowling, Vogler played cricket in South Africa prior to becoming eligible to play for Middlesex Cou ...
and
Gordon White.
Schwarz retired from playing regularly after the 1912 season, although he appeared three times for L Robinson's XI over the next two seasons. In all he took 398 wickets at a
bowling average
In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...
of 17.58, and in Tests he took 55 wickets at 22.60. Schwarz made one first class century: 102 runs scored in a non-Test game against an England XI 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 ...
in 1904.
Personal and military career
Schwarz was a member of the London stock exchange from 1899 to 1902, before joining South African Railways in 1902 after his move to South Africa. From 1904 to 1911, he was a Member of the South African stock exchange until he rejoined the London stock exchange on his return to Britain.
Schwarz was a
Major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
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 ...
of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and fought on the
Western Front in World War I. He was given the role of Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General and was Assistant Controller of Salvage. For his actions during the war he was
Mentioned in Despatches
To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...
and was 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 ...
. He survived the war, but died in the
Spanish flu
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
epidemic at
Étaples
Étaples or Étaples-sur-Mer (; vls, Stapel, lang; pcd, Étape) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is a fishing and leisure port on the Canche river.
History
Étaples takes its name from having been a medieval ...
in northern France just seven days after the
Armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the La ...
had been signed. He was 43.
See also
*
List of international rugby union players killed in action during the First World War
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarz, Reggie
1875 births
1918 deaths
A. J. Webbe's XI cricketers
Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge
B. J. T. Bosanquet's XI cricketers
Barbarian F.C. players
British Army personnel of World War I
Cambridge University R.U.F.C. players
Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in France
England international rugby union players
English rugby union players
Gauteng cricketers
Gentlemen cricketers
H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers
King's Royal Rifle Corps officers
L. G. Robinson's XI cricketers
Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
Middlesex cricketers
Oxfordshire cricketers
People educated at St Paul's School, London
People from Lee, London
Recipients of the Military Cross
Richmond F.C. players
Rugby union players from Lewisham
South Africa Test cricketers
South African cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year