Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

156 The Coach me. How you do it is beyond me. I am sure you will make writing your living before very long, & I am saving your letters, so that when you are famous I shall be able to say to my friends with a touch of pride “These letters were written to me personally by the famous Eileen.” 277 Another letter to the same recipient some months later contains the paragraph ‘Many thanks for your letters. I like reading them but I cannot possibly attempt adequately to reply to them. They are much too clever for me.’ Perhaps during the 1939 season Astill realized himself that he was no longer sufficiently strong for active coaching since, according to the county club’s minutes he was one of the applicants for the position of secretary; but he was unsuccessful since the committee considered him somewhat lazy, a criticism that Richard Holdridge interprets as meaning that ‘he did not set himself demanding or challenging objectives’. So, when war broke out that year, he promptly re-joined the Leicestershire Regiment (in the 70th battalion) with an Emergency Commission as a Lieutenant on 12 September 1939, and acted as a Welfare Officer. At some time before 29 July 1941, he gained promotion to Captain and served in the capacity of Sports Officer. On 22 March 1943 he was transferred to the Pioneer Corps as Adjutant Quartermaster, and served until he was invalided out owing to ever more persistent asthma and the onset of lung cancer. 277 The letter is dated 27 January, 1929, one of several to Miss Eileen Miller. In another he promised to send her one of his prized MCC blazers, and in a third excused his delay because he must first have it dry-cleaned. Back in the Army, Astill is beginning to show signs of the ill-health that would claim him only a few years later.