The

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

Wilfred Ernest Granville Payton CB, MA (27 December 1913 – 4 September 1989) was an English clergyman and

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

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

in 1935,

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1937 and

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

in 1949. Payton was born at

Beeston, Nottinghamshire Beeston is a town in the Borough of Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, England, south-west of Nottingham city centre. To its north-east is the University of Nottingham's main campus, University Park. The pharmaceutical and retail chemist group Boots h ...

, the son of Wilfred Payton who also played for Nottinghamshire. He was educated at

Nottingham High School , motto_translation = Praise to the end , address = Waverley Mount , city = Nottingham , county = Nottinghamshire , postcode = NG7 4ED , country = England , coordinates = , type = Independent day school , established = , closed = , religious ...

and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

. He made his debut for Nottinghamshire against Cambridge University in May 1935 when he made double figure scores. In 1937 he played for Cambridge following a top score of 74 in the Seniors' match. He opened with Paul Gibb, but he won his Blue as much for his keenness in the field as for his dogged batting.Wisden Obituaries in 1989
/ref> His contributions at

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 ...

were 10 and 3. On 1 January 1941 Payton was commissioned into the

Royal Air Force 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 ...

as a chaplain. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

service with the

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) was established in 1936 to support the preparedness of the U.K. Royal Air Force in the event of another war. The Air Ministry intended it to form a supplement to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF ...

, Payton played thirteen first-class games for the Combined Services, and in 1948 he was bowled when 2 runs short of a century in a convincing win over Glamorgan in their Championship year. Payton played two matches for Derbyshire in the 1949 season. Abingdon Berks St Helens

Payton was a right-hand batsman who played 52 innings in 27 first-class matches with an average of 20.72 and a top score of 98.Wilfred Payton at Cricket Archive
/ref> Payton was Chaplain-in-Chief to the RAF and became honorary chaplain to The Queen in 1965. He retired from the RAF in 1969 and became Vicar and Rural Dean of Abingdon. Payton died at Ladder Hill,

Nailsworth Nailsworth is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, lying in one of the Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds, on the A46 road (the Roman Fosse Way), south of Stroud and about north-east of Bristol and Bath. The parish had a populat ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

at the age of 75.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Payton, Wilfred 1913 births 1989 deaths People educated at Nottingham High School Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge English cricketers Nottinghamshire cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Combined Services cricketers Derbyshire cricketers 20th-century English Anglican priests World War II chaplains Honorary Chaplains to the Queen Companions of the Order of the Bath Royal Air Force Chaplains-in-Chief English military chaplains Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II