George Bent Buckley MC MRCS (1885 – 26 April 1962) was an English surgeon and a celebrated cricket historian and an authority on the early days of the game.
G. B. Buckley | |
|---|---|
| Born | George Bent Buckley 1885 Saddleworth, England |
| Died | (aged 77) Weston-super-Mare, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Surgeon |
| Known for | Cricket historian |
Buckley was born in Saddleworth, then part of Yorkshire, the son of Arthur and Jane Buckley, his father was a solicitor. A surgeon by profession, he won the Military Cross in 1916 for working under fire when he was serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War.[1] The citation for the medal appeared in The London Gazette in November 1916 and reads as follows:
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He tended and dressed the wounded under very heavy fire, displaying great courage and determination. He was wounded.
He was a senior surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary and member of the Manchester Medical Society.[2] Photographs of him as a surgeon and soldier (prisoner of war) are held in the University of Manchester Library Image Collections.[3]
After he retired, he devoted his time to researching early cricket history and travelled all over England to visit local libraries. He collected a mass of cricket historical material from old newspapers and dutifully noted every reference he could find relating to 18th century cricket. His researches were consolidated in his two classic books: Fresh Light on Eighteenth Century Cricket (1935) and Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket (1937).
He moved to Weston-super-Mare in 1938 and lived in a Victorian house close to the local cricket ground.
John Arlott states in the 1980 version of Barclay's World of Cricket that Mr Buckley's researches were continued in volumes of photo-reproduced typescript and manuscript, produced under the aegis of Rowland Bowen in 1960.[4] It is probable that even more unpublished notes by Buckley still exist.[citation needed]
Works by G. B. Buckley
editReferences
edit- ^ "No. 29837". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 November 1916. p. 11533.
- ^ "RAMC profile of: George Bent Buckley M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P." RAMC in the Great War. Royal Army Medical Corps WW1. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
- ^ "Search Results: All Fields equal to 'Dr and George and Bent and Buckley'". University of Manchester Library. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
- ^ Barclay's World of Cricket; 2nd ed., 1980, Collins Publishers, ISBN 0-00-216349-7, p. 575.