George William Beldam (1 May 1868 – 23 November 1937) was an English

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 officiall ...

er and a pioneer of action photography in sport. George Beldam was the eldest child of a family that was descended from seventeenth-century

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

. He studied engineering at

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

, before joining the family engineering company. He captained Peterhouse at cricket, football and tennis, and later played for

Brentford F.C. Brentford Football Club is a professional football club in Brentford, West London, England, which competes in the Premier League, the highest tier of English football, having gained promotion via the playoffs at the end of the 2020–21 Champi ...

He was a steady right-handed batsman and a right-arm bowler who represented

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

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 influe ...

(MCC) and London County in first-class cricket between 1900 and 1907. He scored 6,575 runs (average 30.02) with a personal best of 155 * against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England ...

in 1902 and took 83 catches and 107 wickets (average 30.63) with a personal best of 5/28 versus

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

in 1902. He became a noted artist and photographer. He was the first action photographer of sport in Britain, specialising in cricket and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

. He collaborated with

C.B. Fry Charles Burgess Fry (25 April 1872 – 7 September 1956) was an English sportsman, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer. John Arlott described him with the words: "Charles Fry could b ...

on two instructional books, Beldam providing the illustrations and some of the text: * ''Great Batsmen: Their Methods at a Glance'' (1905) * ''Great Bowlers and Fielders: Their Methods at a Glance'' (1907) His brother,

Cyril Beldam Cyril Asplan Beldam (15 October 1869 – 7 September 1940) was an English first-class cricketer active 1894–1900 who played for Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost ...

, and a cousin,

Ernest Beldam Ernest Asplan Beldam (30 June 1879 – 28 November 1958) was an English cricketer. He played 39 first-class matches for Middlesex between 1903 and 1907. His cousins Cyril Beldam Cyril Asplan Beldam (15 October 1869 – 7 September 1940) was ...

, also played first-class cricket. Beldam was a member of the committee that built and opened London's first public golf courses in Richmond Park, which were opened in 1923 and 1925. A biography of him was written by a descendant: * George Alastair Beldam, ''Third Man in: Lost World of a Camera Artist – G.W.Beldam and the Art of Edwardian Cricket'', The George Beldam Collection, 1995, Beldam married three times. He left his first wife, Gertrude, and married the much younger Margaret Underwood in 1921, then in turn left Margaret and married the even younger Christina in 1930. All three marriages produced children. He and Christina lived on 24 acres near

Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tri ...

. He died of a heart attack in 1937. His son by his second marriage,

Roy Beldam Sir Alexander Roy Asplin Beldam, PC (29 March 1925 – 16 October 2020) was a British judge who served as Lord Justice of Appeal in England and Wales from 1989 until 2000. Early years He was the son of the first-class cricketer and photographe ...

(1925–2020), became a barrister and a High Court judge.Beldam
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References

Cited sources

Gideon Haigh Gideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh (born 29 December 1965) is an English-born Australian journalist and non-fiction author who writes about sport (especially cricket), business and crime in Australia. He was born in London, was raised in Ge ...

(2016) ''Stroke of Genius: Victor Trumper and the Shot that Changed Cricket'', Hamish Hamilton, Melbourne, .

External links

*
Cricinfo profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beldam, George 1868 births 1937 deaths English cricketers Photographers from Kent Middlesex cricketers Brentford F.C. players Cricketers from Greater London Footballers from New Cross Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Sports photographers Gentlemen of the South cricketers London County cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen cricketers North v South cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Association footballers not categorized by position English footballers A. J. Webbe's XI cricketers