Osbert Mordaunt

Osbert Mordaunt

Personal information
Full name	Osbert Cautley Mordaunt
Born	26 May 1876 Flax Bourton, Somerset, England
Died	20 October 1949 (aged 73) Bells Yew Green, East Sussex, England
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm slow
Role	Bowler
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1905–10	Somerset
First-class debut	12 June 1905 Somerset v Middlesex
Last First-class	4 July 1914 L Robinson's XI v Oxford University
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 17 Runs scored 148 Batting average 6.72 100s/50s –/– Top score 23 Balls bowled 2049 Wickets 42 Bowling average 26.54 5 wickets in innings 1 10 wickets in match – Best bowling 5/68 Catches/stumpings 12/–
Source: CricketArchive, 27 October 2010

Osbert Cautley Mordaunt DSO (26 May 1876 – 20 October 1949) played first-class cricket for Somerset between 1905 and 1910 and for various amateur teams in the years up to 1914.^[1] He was born at Flax Bourton, Somerset and died at Bells Yew Green, East Sussex.

Family

Some Mordaunts have been called "Osbert" since the 12th century; Thomas Osbert Mordaunt was an 18th-century poet, and Canon Osbert Mordaunt was the rector of Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire and a 19th-century cricket player. The genealogical connection with these other Mordaunts is not clear from the family website.^[2] Osbert Cautley Mordaunt's family home was Gatcombe Court, Flax Bourton.^[3][4]

Cricket career

Mordaunt was a right-handed lower-order batsman and a right-arm slow bowler. He made his debut for Somerset in a single match in 1905 against Middlesex at Lord's.^[5] He made little impression in that match or in two further games in 1906, but in the very weak Somerset side of 1907 he appeared 10 times and his slow bowling took 30 wickets.^[6] His best return and the only time he took five wickets in an innings came in the game against Gloucestershire, when he took five for 68 in the first innings and four for 24 in the second, sharing the wickets in the match with Talbot Lewis (there was one run out batsman).^[7] After 1907, Mordaunt played only one further match for Somerset in 1910.

In 1906 and 1908, Mordaunt appeared in non-first-class matches for the Army cricket team, and a combined Army and Navy side was one of the amateur teams he played for in a handful of first-class matches against university sides after 1910.

Military career

Mordaunt joined the Somerset Light Infantry and in 1911 was on the staff of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.^[2] In 1916, with the rank of major, he was promoted to acting lieutenant-colonel and seconded as an assistant director of signals.^[8] At the end of the First World War, Mordaunt is cited in a report on the final fighting in Italy as Deputy Director of Signals and had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order.^[9] In 1919 he was appointed as officer commanding the School of Signals, which predated the establishment the following year of the Royal Corps of Signals, to which he was then permanently assigned.^[10] He retired from the army on half pay in 1924.^[11]

References

1. "Osbert Mordaunt". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
2. "Mordaunt family". www.mordaunt.me. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
3. "Captain John Mordaunt". www.thepeerage.com. p. 3215. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
4. "Gatcombe Court". www.gatcombecourt.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
5. "Scorecard: Middlesex v Somerset". www.cricketarchive.com. 1905-06-12. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
6. "First-class Bowling in each Season by Osbert Mordaunt". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
7. "Scorecard: Somerset v Gloucestershire". www.cricketarchive.com. 1907-07-29. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
8. The London Gazette: no. 29939. p. 1472. 1917-02-13. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
9. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 31049. p. 14413. 1918-12-04. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
10. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 32696. p. 3685. 1922-05-09. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
11. The London Gazette: no. 32995. p. 8424. 1924-11-21. Retrieved 2010-10-26.