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

House, Harwich. As a major in 1919 he was awarded the OBE for military services in north Russia. In 1924 he was a lieutenant-colonel but retired to became Secretary of the Hong Kong Club. By 1939 had returned to live in Worcester where he died in 1949, leaving just £497 to his daughter Bertha Hawkins. In 1910 a Captain Robinson opened the innings for Essex 2nd XI against Norfolk at Castle Park Colchester, but was run out second ball without scoring. The obvious thought would be that a military man playing at Colchester would have been based at the garrison there, but extensive research by Harry Watton has failed to find a convincing candidate. A year later Thomas was based at Harwich, which is only 18 miles east of Colchester. Cricket Archive shows that in 1912 at Woolwich, TA Robertson scored 93* for Ordnance Depot against Eton Ramblers. A Captain Robertson had also played for Army Ordnance Corps against Royal Artillery Woolwich in July 1909. It isn’t certain that the cricketers who played in 1909, 1910 and 1912 are the same, or that they can be identified with Thomas Alexander Robertson, but it seems a strong possibility. Batting and fielding record M I NO RUNS AVE 100s 50s CT ST Friendly 1 1 0 0.00 Highest score: 0. Scruby, Basil (1874-1946) Born Harlow, Essex, 9 July 1874. Died Harlow, Essex, 24 May 1946. Played 1901. He was the son of James Scruby, a corn merchant, and Louisa Matilda Cornell. He was educated at Ashton Grammar School, Dunstable and from 1900-1904 he was a member of the Harlow Masonic Lodge. Until 1899 he worked with his father but then he set up as a coal merchant and corn dealer at Harlow Mill. In 1902 there was a fire at the mill which may have led to his going bankrupt in 1904. In Harlow in 1919 he started building concrete bungalows with a patented method of his own. In the 1930s he set up as a surveyor and estate agent in Petts Wood, Kent. In 1939 had moved back to Epping, where he was still a surveyor. In 1900 Scruby married Millicent Annie Chaplin and they had four children. She died in 1933 and within six months he had married Olive Dixon, with whom he had daughter Vivien and son Basil Thomas Richard, who in 1952 played for Framlingham College against Suffolk Club & Ground. Basil died in 1946, leaving £8842. Scruby played in the two matches against Middlesex in 1901. At Leyton he scored nine not out and held a catch, but at Lord’s he was bowled for a duck. Batting and fielding record M I NO RUNS AVE 100s 50s CT ST Friendly 2 1 9 9.00 1 Highest score: 9*.