Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

22 The Great War: 1914 to 1918 patriotic citizens determined to ‘do their bit’ for the cause. Thankfully, most would rejoin Frank back at Lord’s when it was all over, although not by Christmas as had been optimistically forecast, but after four long years of carnage on the Western Front during which the promising young batsman Clifford Saville, a captain with the East Yorkshire Regiment, was killed in action in France in November 1917. One of the first professionals to volunteer, once the season had finished and their commitment to their counties had ended, was ‘Patsy’ Hendren who joined the 1st Sportsman’s Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers which had attracted many cricketers, footballers, boxers, wrestlers, athletes, actors, musicians and artists to their ranks. After fourteen months of intensive training they landed in France for service on the front line where they became known as the ‘Hard as Nails’ Battalion. ‘Young Jack’ Hearne also joined the Royal Fusiliers while Harry Lee enlisted in the County of London Regiment. But Harry’s war ended in December 1915 after he suffered a severe leg wound and spent three nights stranded in ‘No Man’s Land’ before he could be recovered and taken to hospital. 11 From there he was repatriated to England and eventually given a discharge. The power and strength of 6ft 5in fast bowler Jack Durston could no longer be used at Lord’s as a member of the ground staff after it was taken over for use by the Army Service Corps and units of the Territorial Army, and he was welcomed by the Royal Engineers, while the mathematical skills of Joe Murrell, many years later to become the Middlesex scorer, were put to good use by the Army Pay Corps. Of the amateurs, Stanley (‘Sammy’) Saville, elder brother of Clifford, had joined the Essex Regiment with the rank of captain, Mordaunt Doll was a lieutenant in the Hussars, Nigel Haig served with the Royal Field Artillery, where he won the Military Cross, and Dick Twining, a second lieutenant with the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, spent months on crutches recovering from severe wounds at Salonika before discharge. Challen Skeet, given a commission with the Royal Fusiliers, had his war cut short after he was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1915 and he was not repatriated until November 1918. Gerald Crutchley suffered the same fate when, as a first lieutenant in the Scots Guards, he too became a prisoner- of-war in 1915. Harry Longman, who had played occasionally for Surrey, was already a major with the Gordon Highlanders at the outbreak of war and would survive to play for Middlesex in 1919 and 1920. Plum Warner was never well enough for active service but was given the rank of captain and spent some time at the War Office attached to the General Staff, interviewing potential officers. In 1916 he had to be admitted to the King Edward VII Hospital in Marylebone for an operation and take six months sick leave. He then served with Colonel John Buchan in the Department of Information at the Foreign Office but in March 1918 had to resign his commission on account of ill-health. At the age of 44 few people expected him to return to first-class cricket. How wrong they were! 11 Lee’s autobiography, Forty Years of English Cricket , published in 1948, describes the subterfuges needed to secure his return to the United Kingdom. He refers to Frank Mann as ‘Mr F.T.Mann’ throughout the book.