Famous Cricketers No 80 - E.G.Wynyard

EDWARD GEORGE WYNYARD The subject of this monograph played cricket for more than 50 years. At the age of 12 he was in the first XI at his prep school and when he was 62 he captained the Free Foresters on a tour to Canada. His first-class career spanned 34 years from his debut as a 17-year-old schoolboy for Hampshire in 1878 to his final match for MCC in 1912 when he was over 50. Wynyard played in only three Test matches for England (one against Australia in 1896 and two against South Africa in 1905/06) but he could have appeared in more. Army duties forced him to decline an invitation to join A.E.Stoddart’s team to Australia in 1897/98, then “domestic reasons” caused him to turn down the England captaincy for MCC’s 1907/08 Test tour to Australia. His first-class record of 8,318 runs in 154 matches could also have been more extensive but he missed the seasons of 1884, 1885 and 1886 because of his Army posting to India, then from 1886 to 1894 Hampshire matches were not reckoned first-class while his Army duties again kept him from the first-class scene in 1902 as well as reducing the number of matches in which he could play in a number of other seasons. But Wynyard’s career batting average of 33.00 compares favourably with four of the greatest batsmen of his era: W.G.Grace 39.45; Arthur Shrewsbury 36.65; Robert Abel 35.46 and William Gunn 33.02. In 1896 he was above all of these in the national batting averages when he came second only to Ranjitsinhji. In addition, he still retains a place in today’s record books, thanks to his sixth wicket partnership of 411 with R.M.Poore for Hampshire against Somerset at Taunton in 1899 (in only 260 minutes!) which, at the time of writing, remains the highest for this wicket in inter-county matches. In his 272 first-class innings he was out for a duck only 16 times and never bagged a pair. Edward George Wynyard was born on 1st April 1861 in Saharanpur, North-West Province of India (now in northern Uttar Pradesh), the son of William Wynyard of North End House, Hursley, Hampshire, who was a magistrate in the Bengal Civil Service at the time. “Teddy” Wynyard, as he was known, was educated at Woodcote House, Windlesham, in Surrey, not far from Sandhurst, then went to Charterhouse in 1874 two years after that school had moved from central London to Godalming. Under the Charterhouse regulations a boy had to reach a higher level than the IV Form in order to stay on after the age of 16 and, unfortunately, Wynyard failed to qualify. In April 1875 when he was in Upper Shell A he finished in an overall exam placing of 33rd out of 38; for the exam of 1876 he was in Under IV A and finished 31st overall out of 36; then a year later he was in Upper IV A and finished 34th overall out of 38. His detailed final year placings were 35th in Classics, 18th in French, 35th in Natural Science and 24th out of 25 in Maths Div. I. Presumably the young Wynyard was more interested in sport than in academic studies at Charterhouse which he left in spring 1877 and transferred to St.Edward’s School, Oxford, where he stayed until the end of summer 1879. Wynyard was earmarked for a military career and in preparation for his commission enrolled at the Oxford Military College, a Cowley fee-paying establishment which eventually went bankrupt in 1896. At the time of the 1881 census the Wynyard family were residing at North End House and Wynyard senior, who by this stage had retired, is shown as having been born in Africa while his wife, Isabella, who was Teddy’s step-mother, was born in Switzerland. Also present were four daughters and one other son, a governess, a domestic nurse, a cook, a parlourmaid, a housemaid, a kitchen maid and a schoolroom maid. The 1881 census shows Teddy Wynyard’s occupation as “lieutenant, First Regiment Warwick Militia” and he joined the Army full-time in July 1883 when he was commissioned into the Eighth 4