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

Batting and fielding record M I NO RUNS AVE 100s 50s CT ST Friendly 3 3 2 9 9.00 Bowling Balls M R W 5wI 10wM Friendly ? ? 9 2 Highest score: 8. Best bowling: 2-9. Hilleard, Paul James (1894-1915) Born Q1 1894 Newington, Southwark. Died 24 April 1915 Formin, France. Played 1914. He was the elder son of James Hilleard and Eva Emma Radclyffe. James was a law clerk who in 1898 stood for election to Southwark council. Eva was born Tanner at Wanborough, Wiltshire in 1862 and married Alfred Henry Radcliffe in 1885 but he died three years later, leaving her with a two-year-old daughter whom James adopted. (Alfred was born and died Radcliffe but when he married spelt his name Radclyffe.) Eva was an independent-minded woman who in 1901, at a time when women’s occupations were seldom shown on censuses, was bringing up a young family and running an employment agency from home at 84 Alvey Street, Newington. In 1911 she was a self-employed dressmaker and Paul, who was privately educated, was a clerk for a public company. The family were living at 17 Winter Avenue, Southend-on-Sea. He was a fine all-round athlete and played four games for the 2nd XI in 1914. He headed the batting averages, mostly opening the innings, and took two wickets as a change bowler. His 85 not out against Surrey at Leyton was ‘a capital display’: sources differ as to whether he opened the innings and therefore carried his bat. He also played at The Oval in a 12-a-side one-day match for Essex Young Amateurs against Surrey Young Amateurs when he scored 52 and, the seventh bowler to be tried, took 4 for 52. A Rifleman in the London Regiment (the Rangers), he was killed in the Second Battle of Ypres, when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines and the violence of the attack forced a withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence. The 1917 List of Essex County Cricketers Serving in His Majesty’s Forces says that he was ‘reported killed in action, now reported prisoner in Germany’, but sadly the original report was correct. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Wickford, Essex. Batting and fielding record M I NO RUNS AVE 100s 50s CT ST Champ 4 8 1 191 27.28 1 1 Bowling Balls M R W 5wI 10wM Champ 60 1 55 2 Highest score: 85*. Best bowling 1-14.