Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

62 Estate. Their job was to help Lionel’s tenant farmers with whatever tasks needed doing; the farmers were distrustful at first but when the boys proved to be hard workers they were in great demand and jobs could have been found for double the number. At a rate of pay of fourpence an hour they certainly represented value for money. Unfortunately, the vagaries of the weather meant that their stay was slightly mistimed and they had to leave just before they would have been of maximum use. All the boys were members of the Officer Training Corps and the head of school was among them. Robinson originally housed them at his cricket ground, putting the pavilion and a marquee at their service but, when the marquee became flooded, he took half into the hall and placed the rest in his garage. Lionel demonstrated his commitment to the Allied cause by financial rather than political gestures, being a conspicuously generous donor to many funds set up towards the end of the war. He donated £25 to the Edith Cavell Memorial Fund in May 1917 (with his wife contributing a further £10), and another £25 to the YMCA Hut Appeal Fund in October 1918; he responded to an appeal from Lady Leicester by gifting £50 to the ‘Comrades Of The Great War Clubhouse Purchase Fund’. After the Great War there was a great deal of correspondence in the Eastern Daily Press on what form war memorials should take. Some people favoured the erection of commemorative monuments whilst others proposed a more practical approach, with constructions in bricks and mortar being handed over to war veterans to use as they saw fit. There was no point in the residents of Old Buckenham starting up such a debate for Lionel Robinson, in a characteristic gesture of somewhat heavy-handed generosity, decided that he was going to pay for the entire project himself and, therefore, that the choice of the form that the memorial was to take was his alone to make. This made it highly unusual for the vast majority were financed through public subscription. The memorial that he chose was far from exceptional, however, in that the design was Sir Reginald Bloomfield’s well-known ‘Cross of Sacrifice’, which was used in all the Imperial War Graves Commission cemeteries and at many other sites across Britain and its Empire. The memorial, constructed on the village green of Old Buckenham, was unveiled by Mary Robinson on 31 August 1919. The octagonal base to the cross consisted of four levels upon which stands a tall stone cross with a bronze sword affixed. The names of those men of Old Buckenham who had fallen during the Great War were inscribed upon the base (with the names of those who fell during the Second World War being subsequently added). Among those listed as fallen were members of some of the families who provided players for the village cricket team (such as Bowen, Derisley, Gedge and Loveday). Cricket after the Great War It took several seasons for normal service to be resumed in English cricket. Many first-class players of note or potential had been wounded or killed and a significant number of young men were not demobilised immediately The Great War