Lives in Cricket No 22 - Jack Mercer

19 He too was injured during 1917 but unlike Jack he was able to return to the front after a short period of rest at home. Jack thought the world of his younger brother and was delighted to see him. It uplifted his spirits to spend time with Victor, but after a week or so, Victor went back to France. Tragically, it was the last that Jack and the rest of his family ever saw of the cheery twenty-year-old; Victor was killed in November 1917 during the Battle of Cambrai. This battle took place in the Nord-Pas de Calais area, near the Hindenburg Line, and was one of the earliest where tanks were used in combat. Sadly, the tanks became ineffective soon after its start on 20 November but the British troops made good advances for over a week, until, on 30 November, the Germans responded with a massive counter-attack. Victor was one of thousands of British troops to be killed that day and news of his death shook Jack and the rest of the Mercer clan back home in Shoreham. 13 His death put back Jack’s recovery by many weeks and caused the return of dreadful nightmares. The years 1916 and 1917 were certainly the darkest of Jack’s life and a period that, quite understandably, he wanted to swiftly forget. Indeed, it may have been no coincidence that in subsequent years Jack often gave his age as two years less than it actually was. By the spring of 1918 Jack was in better physical and mental shape and, as life started to get back to normal, he secured a staff appointment – a desk job – with the Army in London. He was also encouraged to further his rehabilitation by taking part in healthy recreation, and it didn’t take much persuasion for him to rejoin the Southwick club. His time out in the summer sun helped him to forget those dark hours lying wounded in the shell hole, as well as helping to restore his fitness. Playing tennis also helped, as Jack and the other members of his household mixed with others in the area, including members of the Palmer-Tomkinson family – later to find fame through their association with Diana, Princess of Wales and the Royal Family. Cricket remained his number one love and his success as a bowler with the Southwick club once again brought him to the attention of the Sussex coaching staff. They had been aware of his talents as a bowler before the war, when Jack had appeared in a handful of county sides against local clubs and had spent time as a net bowler. Whereas before the war, his involvement had been limited in nature, the interest from Sussex was now much more formal and, after further proof of his form and fitness, he received an offer to join the Sussex ground staff on a full-time basis. At 25, he was one of the oldest of the new faces to be approached, but with nothing else on the horizon and, after the horrors of the war, Jack was only too delighted to get the chance of playing cricket regularly and to be paid for the privilege. To Russia, with love 13 In all, 45,000 men on both sides were killed in the Battle of Cambrai, and 11,000 German and 9,000 British troops were taken prisoner. The battle ended on 7 December when British troops withdrew from the area.