Famous Cricketers No 80 - E.G.Wynyard

FOREWORD By Mrs Ann L.Wynyard (daughter-in-law of E.G.Wynyard) I never knew my father-in-law because he died in 1936 when I was, of course, a very small girl but my husband naturally spoke about him a lot so that I came to understand what an outstanding sportsman he was as well as being a remarkable person. I must confess, though, that the game of cricket does not appeal to me and I write from personal knowledge as I had to play it at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. Later, in 1950 after we returned from honeymoon, my husband took me to Lord’s on one of his precious member’s tickets but I was utterly bored and found it difficult in the great heat and the hot sun not to fall asleep in my seat in the stand. My husband swore that he would never take me again and certainly he never repeated the experiment! The Wynyards were a long-established Hampshire military family and we still own three portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds of 18th century members of it, one of them of a young lady who bears a remarkable resemblance to one of my daughters. The cricketer’s father, William Wynyard, was a magistrate in the Bengal Civil Service and we possess a clock which stood on his magistrate’s desk at the time of the Indian Mutiny in 1857. In the family it is known as “the Mutiny Clock” and the story handed down is that it was stolen by one of the rebels but he had never before encountered a striking clock so when this one began to strike he was terrified because he believed that it was inhabited by foreign devils. So he dumped the clock and fled. It was later returned to William Wynyard and passed via my father-in-law to my husband. On a brass plate attached to the clock is the following inscription: “This clock was taken from the house of Mr William Wynyard, then judge of GoruckPoor [now Gorakhpur in northern Uttar Pradesh], in the Indian rebellion in 1857. In the recapture of GoruckPoor at Christmas 1857 it was retaken from the rebels by Goorkha sepoy and restored to the owner. It was afterwards used by the judge sitting at Futtygurh for the trial of the rebel Nowab of Furruckabad.” Amore direct present-day link we have with E.G.Wynyard himself is an ornamental sword which was a souvenir of his involvement in the Burma campaign of 1885-87 in which he won his DSO. It is a huge weapon with a richly ornamented carved handle and would take a lot of strength to wield. When I had it examined by an expert he said its greatest value lay not in the handle but in the fact that it had a genuine Saracen blade. This is razor sharp so we always keep it in its scabbard and when our three daughters were young they were warned strongly not to attempt to play with it! Of course, my husband inherited many cricketing reminders of his father and in fact presented some of his bats to Hampshire CCC. Still in my possession are the pair of silver candlesticks presented to my father-in-law in 1894 in recognition of his three successive centuries for Hampshire. When my husband died some 12 years ago we had to auction quite a number of things such as Wisdens, photographs, scrapbooks and the like. I gave my youngest daughter, Edwina, some of the photos and the cartoon of her grandfather from Vanity Fair as she is the present-day Wynyard most interested in his cricket career. Today, she proudly has them displayed on the walls of her home. I am delighted that my father-in-law’s cricket career is now made available in full detail and, while I can’t promise to make a close study of the innings, analyses and averages, I will enjoy reading the more anecdotal sections. I wish this publication every success. 3