2nd not 1st: Essex 1899-1914 (6th ed)

He was the son of a civil service writer. During the Great War he served in the London Rifle Brigade. In 1911 he was a hotel clerk and by 1939 he had become a railway restaurant superintendent. In 1923 he married Mabel Wilkins and they moved to Dovercourt, Harwich, where they had twins John and Peter, and daughter Jill. Meadowcroft played in Essex’s only victory of the 1914 campaign, at Witham against Cheshire, and in the draw at Glamorgan, but without contributing very much. Batting and fielding record M I NO RUNS AVE 100s 50s CT ST Champ 2 3 0 13 4.33 2 Bowling Balls M R W 5wI 10wM Champ 66 1 56 0 Highest score: 10. Best bowling: 0-16. Meyer (later Marten), Ernest (1875-1959) Born 3 April 1875, Woodford, Essex Died 23 November 1959, Southend, Essex. Played 1914. While looking through the Essex Club & Ground scorebooks for 1911-15, I noticed that an E. Meyer played against them for the Woodford Thursday Club. I checked the 1911 census for E* Meyer and Woodford, and it only came up with one name. He was Ernest Meyer, a clerk to a tobacco merchant living at Bremen Villa, Chigwell Road, South Woodford. His father was a fur dyer who died in 1878 but left his widow Johanna Henrietta, who had been born in Bremen, with enough money to live on private means. When the franchise was extended in 1888, she was given the vote in local elections, showing that she was a woman of property. Ernest is very much the kind of person who played for the 2nd XI at that time, and I think it a reasonable assumption that he’s our man. His brother was called Hermann, which was not the ideal sort of name to have in 1914. Hermann therefore changed his name to Herbert Marten and Ernest made the same change of surname, although he kept his more English-sounding first name. Their mother did not change her name at all, and in the 1920s all three were still living in Chigwell Road. In 1939 Ernest was a life insurance agent living with his widowed sister Elizabeth Cole and her daughter Lynette in Southend, where he died in 1959 leaving £4860. I could trace no marriage. Meyer appeared in two 2nd XI matches in August 1914. He made 3 and 17 against Surrey 2nd XI but a pair against Kent 2nd XI, after which he did not play again. Batting and fielding record M I NO RUNS AVE 100s 50s CT ST Champ 2 4 20 5.00 Highest score: 17.