Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

Chapter Seven Great War Interlude It is rather hard to imagine Rockley Wilson as a soldier but, soon after the outbreak of war in 1914, he followed the lead of so many of his contemporaries and joined up; by then he was 35 years old. He was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade which had links with the city of Winchester. One of his postings was to a bicycle unit on the Isle of Sheppey, though apparently, despite his years at Cambridge, riding a bicycle competently was always beyond him. Among his duties was the organisation of the shipment of troops to France in the course of which he accompanied detachments to their reserve positions behind the front lines. As the full extent of the horrors of trench warfare unfolded in 1915, culminating in the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele in 1916 and 1917, Rockley must have been thankful to have a home-based posting. 68 After this spell of staff work, the Army opted to make better use of his talents. He studied Turkish at the School of Oriental Studies in London and qualified as an Interpreter (First Class), an achievement of which he was justly proud. In due course, in February 1918, Rockley was posted to General Headquarters of the Egypt Expeditionary Force as Staff Lieutenant and Intelligence Officer, first and briefly in Cairo and then in Palestine to an army base camp some twelve miles from Jaffa. Rockley wrote regular letters to his brother Clem during his time in Palestine. 69 These fascinating documents reveal how perceptive an observer he was of the world around him. His letters are also laced with comments on his army colleagues, some rather cutting, and on life in the military, some rather irreverent. These comments were strictly for private consumption. 70 Rockley also used his 64 68 During the War, the Rifle Brigade suffered a total of 11,575 fatalities, most of them on the Western Front. The Brigade won ten Victoria Crosses. 69 Originals of Rockley Wilson’s letters to his brother Clem were donated by David Wilson to the National Army Museum and are archived there. 70 He may have been difficult for superior officers to deal with. One exasperated commanding officer is said to have remarked: “Rockley, you may be the best slow bowler in England, but you’re the worst bloody subaltern I’ve ever had in my battalion.”