Sir Thomas Edgar Halsey, 3rd Baronet, DSO (28 November 1898 – 30 August 1970) 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 str ...

er, naval officer (1916–1946), and Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire. A right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

and right-arm fast bowler, 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 ...

between 1920 and 1928 and also represented the

Egypt national cricket team The Egypt national cricket team was the team that represented the country of Egypt in international cricket matches. They were active from 1909 until World War II.Encyclopedia of World Cricket by Roy Morgan, Sportsbooks Publishing History Early ...

.Teams played for by Thomas Halsey
at CricketArchive

Early life

Born in

South Mimms South Mimms is a village and civil parish in the Hertsmere district of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It is a small settlement located near to the junction of the M25 motorway with the A1(M) motorway and is perhaps more widely known because ...

in 1898, Halsey was the elder son of

Sir Walter Halsey, 2nd Baronet Sir Walter Johnston Halsey, 2nd Baronet, OBE, DL, JP (1 June 1868 – 2 September 1950), sometime DL and JP for Hertfordshire and Middlesex, and chair. Legal Insurance Co. He succeeded to the title on the death of his father in 1927. T ...

, and his wife Agnes Marion, the daughter of William Macalpine Leny.
HALSEY, Captain Sir Thomas Edgar
' in Who Was Who 1897–2007 online, Retrieved 8 June 2008. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

and

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

. He was already a lieutenant in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

when he went up to Cambridge.

Cricketer

Halsey was a right-handed

and right-arm fast bowler. He played cricket for Eton in 1915 and 1916, but it was for the Royal Navy cricket team that he made his first-class debut, playing against his university side during the

1920 English cricket season 1920 was the 27th season of County Championship cricket in England. There was no Test cricket as the post-war recovery continued. Middlesex rose from 13th in 1919 to win the championship as the first of two back-to-back titles. Worcestershire r ...

.First-class matches played by Thomas Halsey
at CricketArchive He played twice for the university cricket team in 1920, but did not gain his

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 ...

. The rest of his first-class matches were all for the Royal Navy, mostly against the British Army cricket team, though there were also matches against the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He began to play

minor counties 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 ...

cricket for Hertfordshire in 1921, continuing to play for them until 1932, a year in which he played for the Navy against a combined South America team. In 1936, he played for

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

against HM Martineau's XI, captaining the side and scoring a century in the first innings.

Naval officer

* HMS ''Hawkins'' ( cruiser) (

China Station The Commander-in-Chief, China was the admiral in command of what was usually known as the China Station, at once both a British Royal Navy naval formation and its admiral in command. It was created in 1865 and deactivated in 1941. From 1831 to 18 ...

) 30 Apr 1925 – May 1926 * HMS ''Victory'' 31 Jan 1927 – Jul 1927 * HMS ''Effingham'' ( cruiser) (

East Indies Station The East Indies Station was a formation and command of the British Royal Navy. Created in 1744 by the Admiralty, it was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies. Even in official documents, the term ''East Indies Station'' was ...

) 1 Feb 1929 – Feb 1931 * HMY ''Victoria and Albert'' ( Royal yacht) 20 Jan 1932 – Jan 1934 *Commanding Officer, HMS ''Boadicea'' ( destroyer) ( Mediterranean Fleet) 3 Aug 1934 – Feb 1936 *Senior Officers' War Course ( HMS ''President'') 12 October 1936 – Feb 1937 *an Assistant to Naval Assistant to

Second Sea Lord The Second Sea Lord and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (formerly Second Sea Lord) is deputy to the First Sea Lord and the second highest-ranking officer to currently serve in the Royal Navy and is responsible for personnel and naval shore establish ...

( HMS ''President'') 8 Mar 1937 – Apr 1939 *Commanding Officer, the destroyer HMS ''Malcolm'' (flotilla leader) & Captain (D), 16th Destroyer Flotilla, 31 Jul 1939 – 25 Jun 1940 & 12 Aug 1940 – 22 Oct 1940. * HMS ''Badger'' (RN base, Harwich), Feb 1941–4 Feb 1942 *Naval Officer-in-Charge,

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

& CO Training establishment HMS ''St George'', Douglas, Isle of Man 4 Feb 1942–(08.1942) *

Flag Captain In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a "captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First ...

, the battleship , 15 Feb 1943 – 10 Apr 1945. *

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS ''Daedalus'') 1945–1946 He was appointed a Companion of the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...

(DSO) on 7 June 1940 "for good services in the withdrawal of the Allied Armies from the beaches at Dunkirk".

County officer

Halsey retired from the Navy with the rank of captain in 1946,

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 ...

1971
Obituaries
/ref> and went on to serve as Deputy Lieutenant for

Herts Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

from 1948, a JP from 1950,

County Councillor A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...

from 1953, and Vice-Lieutenant for

from 1957 until his death at

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a new ...

in 1970.

Marriage and children

Halsey married Jean Margaret Palmer, daughter of Bertram Brooke, onetime Tuan Muda of Sarawak, and through him, granddaughter of the second

White Rajah The White Rajahs were a dynastic monarchy of the British Brooke family, who founded and ruled the Raj of Sarawak, located on the north west coast of the island of Borneo, from 1841 to 1946. The first ruler was Briton James Brooke. As a reward ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

, Charles Brooke. They had one son and two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halsey, Thomas 1898 births 1970 deaths Military personnel from Hertfordshire Royal Navy captains People from Potters Bar People educated at Eton College Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Cambridge University cricketers Egyptian cricketers English cricketers Royal Navy officers of World War I Royal Navy officers of World War II Royal Navy cricketers 3 Deputy Lieutenants of Hertfordshire Hertfordshire cricketers