View source for Arthur Edwards (cricketer)

{{short description|English cricketer and British Army officer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox cricketer
|                name =
|               image =
|             country = England
|            fullname =	Arthur Corbett Edwards
|          birth_date = 10 September 1871
|         birth_place = [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], England
|          death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1915|9|26|1871|9|10}}
|         death_place = [[Loos-en-Gohelle]], [[Pas-de-Calais]], France
|            heightft =
|          heightinch =
|            nickname =
|              family =
|             batting = Unknown
|             bowling = Unknown
|                role =
|               club1 = [[Europeans cricket team|Europeans]]
|               year1 = 1902/03
|               club2 = [[Free State cricket team|Orange Free State]]
|               year2 = 1903/04
|             columns = 1
|             column1 = [[First-class cricket|First-class]]
|            matches1 = 2
|               runs1 = 24
|            bat avg1 = 6.00
|           100s/50s1 = –/–
|          top score1 = 13
|         deliveries1 = 78
|            wickets1 = 2
|           bowl avg1 = 31.00
|            fivefor1 = –
|             tenfor1 = –
|       best bowling1 = 2/59
|  catches/stumpings1 = 1/–
|                date = 6 October
|                year = 2020
|              source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/28634.html ESPNcricinfo
}}
'''Arthur Corbett Edwards''' (10 September 1871 – 26 September 1915) was an [[English people|English]] first-class [[cricket]]er and [[British Army]] officer.
The son of Lieutenant General [[James Bevan Edwards|Sir J. Bevan Edwards]], he was born at [[Portsmouth]] in September 1871. He was educated at [[Eton College]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Eton Register |page=97 |volume=5 |publisher=[[Spottiswoode & Co.]] |year=1908 |url=https://archive.org/details/etonregister04collgoog/page/n136}}</ref> before going up to [[St Edmund Hall, Oxford]].<ref name="BOOK">{{cite book|last=McCrery|first=Nigel|title=Final Wicket: Test and First Class Cricketers Killed in the Great War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mphCgAAQBAJ|date=30 July 2015|publisher=[[Pen and Sword]]|isbn=978-1473864191|pages=141–2}}</ref> Though he never played [[first-class cricket]] for [[Oxford University Cricket Club|Oxford University]], he did have trials for [[Kent County Cricket Club|Kent]] in 1895 when he played for their second XI against the second XI of [[Middlesex County Cricket Club|Middlesex]]. He was a good [[all-rounder]] for [[Folkestone Cricket Club]] in Kent club cricket.<ref name="BOOK"/> Edwards was commissioned as a [[Second lieutenant#United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries|second lieutenant]] in the [[Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment]] in December 1891,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26234|date=18 December 1891|page=6978}}</ref> while studying at Oxford, and was promoted to [[Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines)|lieutenant]] in December 1894,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26576|date=4 December 1894|page=7126}}</ref> with promotion to [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]] following in June 1900.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27222|date=21 August 1900|page=5174}}</ref> Edwards resigned his commission in October 1901,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27362|date=4 October 1901|page=6491}}</ref> later spending time abroad where he played first-class cricket in [[British Raj|British India]] for the [[Europeans cricket team]] against the [[Parsees cricket team|Parsees]] at [[Deccan Gymkhana Ground|Poona]] in the [[Bombay Quadrangular#Presidency Match|Bombay Presidency Match]] of September 1902. He made a second first-class appearance in South Africa for [[Free State cricket team|Orange Free State]] against [[Gauteng (cricket team)|Transvaal]] in the semi-final of the [[1903–04 Currie Cup]] played at [[Ramblers Cricket Club Ground|Bloemfontein]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/13/13379/First-Class_Matches.html |title=First-Class Matches played by Arthur Edwards |publisher=CricketArchive |access-date=2020-10-07 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
Edwards was re-commissioned into the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment during the [[World War I|First World War]], which began in August 1914 (see [[British entry into World War I]]), with him being granted the temporary rank of [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]] in September.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28918|date=29 September 1914|page=7685}}</ref> He arrived in France on 1 September 1915 and travelled with the 8th (Service) Battalion of the Royal West Kents, a unit of [[Kitchener's Army]], to [[Boulogne-sur-Mer|Boulogne]], France, before undertaking training at [[Étaples]]. On 25 September, the battalion marched to [[Béthune]] to take part in the [[Battle of Loos]]. Ordered to attack [[Vermelles]], these orders changed instead to an attack during the morning of 26 September. Ordered to take an objective at [[Hulluch]], the West Kent's attacked at 10:30am [[Greenwich Mean Time|GMT]] over a stretch of no-man's-land which was a mile wide. Despite suffering heavy casualties, they reached their objective only to discover the German barbed wire defences still intact, despite an earlier artillery bombardment. With a division on their right flank suffering severe casualties and being forced to withdraw, this left the West Kent's exposed to machine gun fire on their right flank as well as from in front of them. It was during this part of the engagement that Edwards was killed in action. His body was never recovered from the battlefield and he is memorialised at the [[Loos Memorial]].<ref name="BOOK"/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*{{cricinfo|id=28634}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Arthur}}
[[Category:1871 births]]
[[Category:1915 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British Army personnel]]
[[Category:Cricketers from Portsmouth]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford]]
[[Category:Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment officers]]
[[Category:English cricketers]]
[[Category:Europeans cricketers]]
[[Category:Free State cricketers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British military personnel killed in World War I]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Portsmouth]]