Remembrance at OUCC

11 November 2024

OUCC would like to commemorate the 12 Cricket Blues who were killed during WWII in the year of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. We would like to thank the families of these players and acknowledge their sacrifice in their fight for peace. We are incredibly grateful for their service to their country and would like to honour the following twelve old Blues:

  • TGL Ballance (Brasenose)
  • PH Blagg (Oriel)
  • REC Butterworth (Christ Church)
  • FGH Chalk (Brasenose)
  • EJH Dixon (Christ Church)
  • JG Halliday (Merton)
  • GB Legge (Brasenose)
  • MH Matthews (Christ Church)
  • KB Scott (Trinity)
  • RG Tindall (Trinity)
  • DF Walker (Brasenose)
  • PMW Whitehouse (New)

Four of these Blues played in 1937 XI were killed (Dixon, Scott, Matthews and Ballance).

Tristan Ballance won two Blues in 1935 and 1937 as a slow left arm bowler. He became a schoolmaster at Brighton College and played minor counties cricket for Norfolk. He won the MC in March 1943 in Tunisia while serving with the Durham Light Infantry and was killed near Monte Cassino in Italy in December that year.
Peter Blagg won his Blue in 1939 as a wicket-keeper and also won a soccer Blue the same year. He was killed in action in Burma in March 1943 while serving with the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

Reginald Butterworth won his Blue in 1927 as an all-rounder and played for Middlesex. He also played golf for Oxford. He enlisted in the RAF as an air gunner and was shot down over France in May 1940. His brother John Butterworth, also a Vincent’s member, was killed in 1941 by a German bomb in London while serving in an anti-aircraft battery.

Gerry Chalk won four Blues 1931-4 as a batsman and was captain in 1934. He was also a hockey Blue. He taught at Malvern College and played for Kent 1933-9, captaining them in 1938-9. He won the DFC serving as a rear gunner in 218 Squadron in 1941 and then trained to fly fighters, going on to command a flight of Spitfires in 124 Squadron. He was shot down and killed over France in February 1943. Officially listed as missing, his Spitfire was found and his body was identified in the 1980s and re-buried in Terlincthun Cemetery.

Eric ‘Budge’ Dixon won three Blues 1937-9 as a batsman and was captain in 1939, playing for Northants that year. He was also an accomplished organist. A teacher at Summerfields Prep in 1939, he was called up to the Fleet Air Arm and joined 806 Squadron flying off HMS Formidable in the Mediterranean. He went missing on a patrol off the Libyan coast in April 1941.

John Halliday won his Blue in 1935 as an all-rounder and also played for Oxfordshire, captaining the county in 1938. He joined the RAF, rising to the rank of Wing Commander and was killed in an accident in France in December 1945.

Geoffrey Legge won two Blues in 1925 and 1926 as a batsman and was captain in 1926. He played Test matches for England v South Africa in 1927, against New Zealand in 1930 and played for Kent 1924-31. He was killed in a flying accident in Cornwall in November 1940 while serving in the Fleet Air Arm.

Michael Matthews won two Blues 1936-7 as a wicket-keeper. The son of the Dean of St Paul’s, he achieved a First in Greats and read for the Bar after Oxford. Called up into the RNVR he was serving on HMS Greyhound, a destroyer, during the Dunkirk evacuation and was killed off Dunkirk on 29 May 1940.

Kenneth Scott won his Blue in 1937 as a medium-pace bowler. He was a better golfer, captaining the Oxford team, played for England and was close to Walker Cup selection. He won the MC in Tunisia with Royal West Kents and was killed in the invasion of Sicily in August 1943.

Richard Tindall won two Blues in 1933 and 1934 as an all-rounder and was also a soccer Blue. He played minor counties cricket for Dorset. After Oxford, he taught at Eton until war broke out. He was commissioned into the King’s Royal Rifle Corps and went to North Africa as a company commander in the 2nd Battalion. He was killed in January 1942 in an air attack.

David Walker won three Blues 1933-5 as a batsman and was captain in 1935. He was also a hockey Blue. He also played minor counties cricket for Norfolk. After Oxford he taught at Harrow, where he was master-in-charge of cricket. He joined the RAF as a pilot in Coastal Command and was killed during an anti-shipping operation off the Norwegian coast.

Peter Whitehouse won his Blue in 1938 as an all-rounder and played a few games for Kent in 1938-9. He was also a hockey Blue. He joined the Indian Army in the 13th Frontier Force Rifles and was killed in Italy in November 1943.

 

Special thanks to David Walsh for his work in collating the histories of these fallen soldiers.