Robert Henry Dewing (6 August 1863 – 6 November 1934) was an English first-class

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 str ...

er and an army officer. Dewing served initially in the Caribbean with the

West India Regiment The West India Regiments (WIR) were infantry units of the British Army recruited from and normally stationed in the British colonies of the Caribbean between 1795 and 1927. In 1888 the two West India Regiments then in existence were reduced t ...

from 1884, before transferring to the British Indian Army around 1895, holding several commands until his retirement in 1912. He came out of retirement to serve in 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 ...

during 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 ...

. While in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, he played

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 officia ...

for the

Europeans cricket team The Europeans cricket team was an Indian first-class cricket team which took part in the annual Bombay tournament and Lahore tournament. The team was founded by members of the European community in Bombay who played cricket at the Bombay Gymkha ...

Life and military career

Dewing was born in August 1863 at

Beyton Beyton is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. The village is around east of Bury St Edmunds, south-east of Thurston and north-west of Stowmarket. The main Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds road ...

, Suffolk to the cricketer Edward Dewing. He was educated in Bury St Edmunds at King Edward VI School, before attending

Brighton College Brighton College is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College (the senior school, ages 11 to 18); Brighton College Preparatory Sc ...

. From there he attended the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...

. He graduated from Sandhurst in August 1884, entering as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

into the

. He served with the West India Regiment in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. By 1895, he had transferred to the British Indian Army, with promotion to the rank of captain coming in August 1895. He saw action in the Boxer Rebellion, and was promoted to major on 23 August 1902. Dewing was commanding the 76th Punjabis when he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on 26 October 1908. On visits to England between 1905 and 1912, Dewing played

minor counties cricket The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

for Suffolk, making eight appearances in the Minor Counties Championship. While in British India, he made a single appearance in

for the Europeans against the

Parsees Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim co ...

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

in the 1907–08 Bombay Triangular. Batting twice in the match, he was dismissed in the Europeans first-innings without scoring by Maneksha Bulsara, while in their second-innings he was dismissed by the same bowler for 3 runs. He retired from the British Indian Army in October 1912. After returning to England, he served in the

during the

. He served with the

East Yorkshire Regiment The East Yorkshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1685 as Sir William Clifton's Regiment of Foot and later renamed the 15th Regiment of Foot. It saw service for three centuries, before eventually being ...

, before being seconded to command a training reserve battalion in March 1917. He later served with the Bedfordshire Regiment, where he commanded the 51st Graduate Battalion. He relinquished this command in February 1919. He was made an OBE in the

1919 New Year Honours The 1919 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were published in ''The London Gazette'' and ''The Times'' in Jan ...

. Dewing died at

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

in November 1934.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewing, Robert 1863 births 1934 deaths Military personnel from Suffolk People from Mid Suffolk District People educated at King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds People educated at Brighton College Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst West India Regiment officers British Army personnel of the Boxer Rebellion English cricketers Suffolk cricketers Indian Staff Corps officers Europeans cricketers British Army personnel of World War I East Yorkshire Regiment officers Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment officers Members of the Order of the British Empire