Charles Luther
Personal information
Full name
Alan Charles Grenville Luther
Born(1880-09-17)17 September 1880
Kensington, London, England
Died23 June 1961(1961-06-23) (aged 80)
Staplemead, Curland, Somerset, England
BattingRight-handed
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1908Sussex
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 17
Runs scored 383
Batting average 16.65
100s/50s 0/0
Top score 42
Catches/stumpings 7/0
Source: Cricinfo, 3 January 2016

Alan Charles Grenville Luther MC (17 September 1880 – 23 June 1961) was an English soldier and cricketer.

Life and career

Educated at Rugby, where he appeared in the First XI in 1897 and 1898,[1] Luther did his military training at Sandhurst. He joined the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and fought in the Second Boer War.[2][3] He was promoted to the rank of captain. In August 1914, during the Battle of Le Cateau in the First World War, whilst lying wounded in no-man's-land, Luther was discovered by a German soldier who had lived in England before the war and appreciated the game of cricket; he took Luther to Le Cateau for treatment.[4] Luther remained a prisoner of war until 1918. In 1920, promoted to major, he was awarded the Military Cross for valour at Le Cateau.[2]

Luther played cricket at various levels until his late forties, mostly as a batsman, including nine first-class matches for Sussex in 1908 and eight for MCC from 1908 to 1911. His highest first-class score was 42, for MCC against Leicestershire in 1909.[5] He played Minor Counties cricket for Berkshire in 1926 and 1927, scoring 101 out of a team total of 194 against Hertfordshire in 1927.[6]

Luther retired from the army in the early 1920s.[2] After a few years farming in South Africa, he returned to England and served as secretary of Berkshire County Cricket Club and assistant secretary of Surrey.[1] At The Oval in the late 1920s, where he was a coach for Surrey, he organized the net sessions for young club members; Ronald Mason remembers him as "tall and willowy with a shock of grey hair on a handsome head that swayed engagingly as he walked".[7]

During World War II, Luther served with the Home Guard, based at Canonteign in Devon. After a few more years in South Africa after the war, he returned to live the rest of his life near Taunton in Somerset.[2]

Luther was also a prominent rackets player.[1] He married Cecily Noel, the sister of a fellow officer from the Yorkshire Light Infantry, in London in July 1921. They had one son.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Wisden 1962, p. 987.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Michael Pulford, "Captain Luther", The Cricket Statistician, Autumn 2022, pp. 39–45.
  3. ↑ "The Peerage: Person Page 29859". The Peerage. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  4. ↑ "Astronomical Odds Against", The Cricketer, Spring Annual, 1941, p. 10.
  5. ↑ "MCC v Leicestershire 1909". CricketArchive. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  6. ↑ "Hertfordshire v Berkshire 1927". CricketArchive. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  7. ↑ Ronald Mason, Batsman's Paradise, Hollis & Carter, London, 1955, p. 80.
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