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

Wells, Edgar (1887-1963) Born 18 March 1887, West Ham, Essex. Died 12 February 1963 Chadwell Heath, Essex. Played 1910. E Wells played one match for Essex 2nd XI, in a heavy defeat by Kent at Leyton in 1910. His is a common name so there can be no certainty who he is, but Harry Watton has come up with a plausible candidate in Edgar Wells. He was a good all-round cricketer who with his father and brothers 1909-11 played for the strong South West Ham club, which was also Dr Francis Holton’s team. If Edgar is our man, during the Great War he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery at Slough, where in 1916 he married Catherine Elizabeth Kitch and had son Albert E in 1919. Catherine died in 1935 aged 52. In 1911 Edgar was an entry clerk with a surgical instrument maker, and in 1939 an invoice clerk living in Sidcup, Kent. He died a month short of his 86th birthday and left £670. Batting and fielding record M I NO RUNS AVE 100s 50s CT ST Friendly 1 2 6 3.00 Bowling Balls M R W 5wI 10wM Friendly 24 0 20 0 Highest score: 6. Best bowling: 0-20. Wilmer, Geoffrey Bradford (1890-1956) Born 20 December 1890, Muswell Hill, Middlesex. Died Q1 1956 Pancras. Played 1910. He was the third child and second son of Benjamin George Wilmer (1852-1917) and Emily Maud Wood. Benjamin was an iron, marble and slate merchant and engineer who left £36,700 (over £2.5 million in 2021). Geoffrey was educated at Felsted, where he played regularly for the 1st XI aged only 16. In 1911 he was lodging in Bristol described as a merchant, but later had a decidedly chequered career. He became a Second Lieutenant in the 4 th Battalion of the Essex Regiment in 1908 and attended three annual two-week training sessions, but resigned in 1912. In December 1914 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery but a month later he was one of over 20 whose commissions were cancelled. In 1917 Wilmer was conscripted into the 16 th City of London Regiment, and was soon promoted to Lance-Corporal. He had a shoulder problem, which may have been why he was rejected in 1914, but was passed fit. In 1918 he was transferred to the Royal Engineers as a sapper but was admitted to hospital and discharged as unfit two days before the end of the war.