Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

112 Afterwards coloured, and I wonder how it ever came about that he has been referred to as South Africa’s only coloured Test cricketer. He was of white stock; one of his brothers was also born in Pietermaritzburg and the other two (older) in Bootle. He was known in the family as ‘Lew’. To suggest that he took refuge in the WC from alleged taunting by J.H. Sinclair and other South African cricketers – as Rowland Bowen apparently claims – is utter nonsense. My father was visited in subsequent years, when he played in Accrington and Bradford, by many members of the South African touring teams and I can well remember the great friendship among them all. My father, who often recalled his cricketing days, certainly never referred to any ostracism, except for one incident which concerned the Australia player Warwick Armstrong. When C.B.LlewellynwaschoseninEngland’ssquadof14atBirmingham in 1902, Armstrong, recalling his earlier appearances for South Africa against England, said sarcastically, ‘I thought we were playing England, not South Africa’. This was the only offensive remark ever referred to by my father. I should like also to correct the statement that his qualification period for Hampshire was spent coaching trainees at C.B.Fry’s training ship Mercury. The ship was owned by Capt C.A.R.Hoare (who became my godfather; I was actually christened at St. Agatha’s Church in the grounds of T.S.Mercury); C.B.Fry took over upon Capt Hoare’s death. My father left Hampshire to play league cricket not after any ‘disagreement’, but simply because with four young daughters to raise he needed the sort of remuneration offered by Accrington. He maintained a cordial relationship with his old county as well as with old colleagues such as Jack Newman and Phil Mead. He broke his thigh in 1960 (the year, incidentally, of his diamond wedding anniversary) and was crippled for the remainder of his life. He died in 1964, leaving a widow, four daughters, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. While the last three paragraphs of her letter are broadly accurate, though she tweaked the date of her parents’ marriage back a year to 1900, the beginning recites the family version of her father’s ancestry, which could only have been passed on to her by her parents. It appears that she was unaware of the ‘whitewashed