Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

95 The fickle nature of fame is indicated by complete lack of coverage in the local Lewisham press, and only cursory mentions in the national newspapers. Bell’s Life produced a more lengthy obituary, concluding that ‘few if any professionals were more esteemed by cricketers of all grades than was poor Willsher’, and Cricket paid substantial tribute in its edition of 29 October, acknowledging that ‘the bowler … who surpasses or equals Ted Willsher will indeed be a “demon”.’ If journalists had short memories, there was no such problem with his fellow cricketers, who turned out en masse to pay their respects at his funeral service, held at Ladywell Cemetery in Lewisham on 12 October. Arthur Haygarth has left us a detailed description, telling of how a group of mourners, including the brothers Alec and George Hearne of Kent, … formed two lines, and followed the coffin into the chapel … on reaching the graveside everyone felt gratified to observe that Lord Harris had not permitted political engagements to absorb his whole attention, but had found time to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of one who on the cricket field had so long and so well upheld the honour of the county to which they were both attached. The coffin, which was of plain oak … was covered with floral tributes of loving friends. … A memorial stone was subsequently placed over the grave … it having been subscribed for by Lord Harris and one hundred gentlemen and professional cricketers of England. It takes the form of a cross, on the transverse being the words, ‘Thy will be done’. When the author visited the cemetery in the summer of 2009, the memorial, impossible to find without a detailed map, was buried deep within a patch of luxuriant grassland. It has long since lost its cross, but, after a bit of judicious grass-flattening, it yields its secrets to the all-seeing eye of the digital camera. One can still faintly make out the original carved inscription on the base, which reads: SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF EDGAR WILLSHER CRICKETER WHO PLAYED WITH HIS NATIVE COUNTY KENT FOR OVER A QUARTER OF A CENTURY DIED 7TH OCTOBER 1885 THIS STONE WAS ERECTED TO HIS MEMORY BY A GREAT NUMBER OF THOSE WHO HAD WITNESSED HIS BRILLIANT PERFORMANCES IN THE CRICKET FIELD AND WHO RESPECTED THE STERLING QUALITIES OF HIS CHARACTER Epitaph