William Riley (11 August 1888 – 9 August 1917) was an English cricketer active from 1909 to 1914 who played 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 ...

. He was born in

Newstead, Nottinghamshire Newstead is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England in the borough of Gedling.OS Explorer Map 270: Sherwood Forest: (1:25 000): It is situated between the city of Nottingham and the towns of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Sutton-in-Ashfield ...

and died in military action near

Koksijde Koksijde (; french: Coxyde ; vls, Koksyde) is a town and a municipality in Belgium. It is located on the North Sea coast in the southwest of the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises apart from Koksijde, the villages of O ...

(Coxyde),

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, 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 ...

. He appeared in 80 first-class matches as a lefthanded

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who

bowled In cricket, the term bowled has several meanings. First, is the act of propelling the ball towards the wicket defended by a batsman. Second, it is a method of dismissing a batsman, by hitting the wicket with a ball delivered by the bowler. (Th ...

left arm slow medium. He scored 740 runs with a highest score of 48 and took 235

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

s with a best performance of seven for 80. He was killed in the First World War while serving as a gunner with the 133rd Siege Battery,

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) ...

Notes

1888 births 1917 deaths English cricketers Nottinghamshire cricketers British military personnel killed in World War I Royal Garrison Artillery soldiers British Army personnel of World War I Military personnel from Nottinghamshire {{england-cricket-bio-1880s-stub