Walter Crawford

Sir Walter Ferguson Crawford KBE CMG (11 April 1894 – 28 March 1978) was an Australian first-class cricketer, British Army officer and British colonial official. Born in Australia, where he attended the University of Sydney, Crawford was chosen as New South Wales' Rhodes Scholar for 1915. He travelled to England and served in the British Army during World War I, before taking up his scholarship at Oxford in 1919, during which he played first-class cricket. After graduating, he became a British colonial official, mostly associated with Sudan and the Middle East.

Walter Crawford
Personal information
Full name
Walter Ferguson Crawford
Born11 April 1894
Malvern, Victoria, Australia
Died28 March 1978(1978-03-28) (aged 83)
Churt, Surrey, England
BattingUnknown
BowlingUnknown
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1919Oxford University
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 3
Runs scored 23
Batting average 4.60
100s/50s –/–
Top score 11
Balls bowled 210
Wickets 3
Bowling average 45.33
5 wickets in innings –
10 wickets in match –
Best bowling 2/43
Catches/stumpings 3/–
Source: Cricinfo, 22 August 2019

Early life and WWI

Crawford was born in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern in April 1894. He was educated in Sydney at the Sydney Grammar School, before studying art at St Paul's College at the University of Sydney. He was selected as the 1915 Rhodes Scholar for New South Wales. Crawford was en route to England when World War I commenced in July 1914.[1] Arriving in England, he enlisted in the British Army as a second lieutenant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in June 1915.[2] He was sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in December 1915, where he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and fought until he was wounded in action later in that year. He recovered from his wounds in hospital in England, before transferring to the 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, spending the remainder of the war in Salonika.[1]

Pos-war cricket and colonial service

After the war, Crawford took up his Rhodes Scholarship at New College, Oxford.[3] While studying at Oxford, he made his debut in first-class cricket for the Gentlemen of England against Oxford University at Oxford in 1919. He played in two further first-class matches in 1919, appearing for Oxford University against the Australian Imperial Forces, and for P. F. Warner's XI against Oxford University.[4]

After graduating from Oxford, he joined the Government Political Service in Mesopotamia. He was made an OBE in September 1921 and was appointed to the Order of the Nile in September 1932, marrying Marjorie Vivienne Shirley in between these appointments in 1927.[1][5][6] He was the governor of Northern Province in Sudan from 1942–44, before serving as a liaison officer to the government of Palestine from 1944–46 and head of the Middle East Development Division at the Foreign Office from 1946–60,[7] He was made a Companion, 3rd Class of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1950 New Year Honours,[8] before being knighted in the 1958 Birthday Honours.[9] He served as the director-general of the Middle East Association from 1960–64.[7] Crawford died in March 1978 at Churt, Surrey.

References
  1. Pajic, Bojan (2019). Our Forgotten Volunteers: Australians and New Zealanders with Serbs in World War One. Australian Scholarly Publishing. ISBN 978-1925801446.
  2. "No. 29189". The London Gazette. 11 June 1915. p. 5643.
  3. Sudan political service, 1899-1929. Civil Secretary's Office, Sudan Govt. 1932. p. 46. ISBN 1925801446.
  4. "First-Class Matches played by Walter Crawford". CricketArchive. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  5. "No. 32452". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 September 1921. p. 7194.
  6. "No. 33687". The London Gazette. 27 September 1932. p. 6089.
  7. Jones, P.; Sinclair, J.; Cook, C.; Weeks, Jeffrey (1985). Sources in British Political History 1900-1951. Vol. 6. Springer. p. 148. ISBN 134917825X.
  8. "No. 38797". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1949. p. 5.
  9. "No. 41404". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1958. p. 3532.
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