Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

62 Triumph and tragedy in Test Matches – most notably the Ashes Test at Old Trafford in 1956 – the subsequent War with Germany not only marked the end of Maurice’s career with Glamorgan, it saw the Welsh county’s captain give his life for King and Country during August 1944. During the closingmatchof the 1939 season, away to Leicestershire, he had signed off in typical fashion by scoring a fine century in Glamorgan’s first innings before briefly appearing at the end of their second, allowing others to have a chance to bat as the game petered out into a draw. Shortly after the end of the season, Maurice married his fiancée, Elizabeth Brook – the daughter of an industrialist from north-east England – before swapping his cricket whites for the khaki uniform of the Welsh Guards and starting his military training. In the ensuing months Maurice took every opportunity to return home to see his wife, and they had broad smiles on their faces as the first of three children was born the following Spring, allowing the proud father to combine trips to South Wales on paternity leave with attending meetings of the Emergency Committee which had been set up to oversee Glamorgan’s affairs. With many believing that the War would soon be over, plans were even put in place Maurice Turnbull walks out to toss with Don Bradman ahead of Glamorgan’s match against the 1938 Australians at Swansea.