Cecil Phelips Goodden (12 November 1879 – 5 November 1969) 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, writer and

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 Royal Marines officer. Goodden was 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 ...

. The son of John Robert Phelips Goodden, who would later become

High Sheriff of Dorset The High Sheriff of Dorset is an ancient high sheriff title which has been in existence for over one thousand years. Until 1567 the Sheriff of Somerset was also the Sheriff of Dorset. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government ...

, and Caroline Samuelson, he was born in Compton House, the family home of the Goodden family, in the village of

Over Compton Over Compton is a village and civil parish in north west Dorset, England, situated in the Yeo valley east of Yeovil. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 183. Compton House, formerly the home of the Goodden family, lies outside th ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

. He was later educated at Harrow School, where he played for the school cricket team in 1899. Compton House, Over Compton - geograph

Goodden made his first-class debut for the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

in 1900 against London County. He played 2 further first-class matches, both against the same opposition in 1901 and 1903. Goodden scored 27 runs at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 5.40 in these matches. With the ball, he bowled a total of 4 overs, without taking a wicket. Goodden made his debut for

in the 1903 Minor Counties Championship against

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

. He played

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 infrequently for Dorset from 1903 to 1922, making 57 appearances. Goodden wrote a number of books during his life, including ''The story of the Sherborne Pageant''. He married Hylda Woulfe in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 2 December 1911, with the couple having four daughters and one son. Goodden later served in 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 ...

. The London Gazette mentions him in October 1914 as having been given the rank of

2nd Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until 1 ...

in the

Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry The Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army founded in 1794 as the Dorsetshire Regiment of Volunteer Yeomanry Cavalry in response to the growing threat of invasion during the Napoleonic wars. It gained its first ro ...

. During the course of the war, Goodden moved to the Royal Marines. He was once more mentioned in dispatches in December 1916, this time holding the rank of Temporary Lieutenant, with the nature of the mention being to inform readers of his promotion to Temporary Captain. Following the war, he became the

bursar A bursar (derived from " bursa", Latin for '' purse'') is a professional administrator in a school or university often with a predominantly financial role. In the United States, bursars usually hold office only at the level of higher education ( ...

at Harrow School. Goodden died on 5 November 1969 in

Sedgehill Sedgehill is a former civil parish, with scattered small settlements, now within Sedgehill and Semley civil parish in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire. It lies to the west of the A350 primary route, about north of Shaftesbury ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

References

External links

Cecil Goodden
at

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Cecil Goodden
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Goodden, Cecil 1879 births 1969 deaths People from West Dorset District People educated at Harrow School English cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Dorset cricketers English writers British Army personnel of World War I Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry officers Royal Marines officers Royal Marines personnel of World War I Military personnel from Dorset