Canon Jack Parsons - Warwickshire Cricketer

Warwickshire cricketer, Jack Parsons, circa April 1924. Canon Jack Parsons, the former Warwickshire cricketer who also achieved distinction in the Army and in the Church, spent his early years in Oxford, where his father was chef at Brasenose College and captained the City cricket club. When the family moved to Coventry, Jack Parsons went to Bablake School, joined the Humber car firm and made his 2nd XI debut for Warwickshire in 1910. A double-century secured him a place in the 1st XI and in the Championship-winning side of 1911. In 1913 he carried his bat for 161 against Gloucestershire and won selection for the Players where 'he batted' (wrote The Times) 'with perfect confidence' in the company of Hobbs, Hendren and Woolley in opposition to Spooner, Fry, Warner and Jessop. He would, said Wisden in 1915, 'go straight to the top of the tree'. Parsons had a distinguished war as a cavalry officer, winning the Military Cross and being almost the lone survivor of the cavalry charge at Huj which secured Jerusalem. He liked soldiering, and peacetime found him (after a few weeks with Warwickshire in 1919) serving in the Indian Army, where his only cricket was occasional appearances for the Europeans in the Quadrangular Tournament - taking 20 of his 80 first-class wickets in one week. Professional cricket reclaimed him in 1923 and for the next dozen years he was a major figure in the county side, reserving his best performances for matches against the tourists and having a purple patch of 400 runs in a week in July 1925. He regularly appeared for the Players and, after his ordination, for the Gentlemen. But the England 'cap' from which he was not too far removed in 1914 eluded him. (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)