Cyril Talbot Docker MBE (3 March 1884 – 26 March 1975) was an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er active from 1909 to 1920 who played for

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and the Australian Imperial Force Touring XI. He was born in

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came a ...

, Sydney and died in

Double Bay Double Bay is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 4 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local government area of the Municipalit ...

, Sydney. He was one of four sons of John Frederick Docker, older brother of Australian cricketer Keith Docker, and a grandson of English-Australian grazier and politician

Joseph Docker Hon. Joseph Docker (1802 – 9 December 1884), was an Australian grazier, early amateur photographer and politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1856 to 1861, and again from 1863 until his death in1884. Docker ...

. He appeared in 24 first-class matches as a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, th ...

who

bowled In cricket, the term bowled has several meanings. First, is the act of propelling the ball towards the wicket defended by a batsman. Second, it is a method of dismissing a batsman, by hitting the wicket with a ball delivered by the bowler. (T ...

right arm fast medium pace. He scored 371 runs with a highest score of 52 * and took 58

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

s with a best performance of five for 20.Cyril Docker at ''CricketArchive''
/ref> Docker served with the

First Australian Imperial Force The First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF) was the main expeditionary force of the Australian Army during the First World War. It was formed as the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) following Britain's declaration of war on Germany on 15 Aug ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, reaching the rank of

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. At the

Battle of Pozières The Battle of Pozières (23 July – 3 September 1916) took place in northern France around the village of Pozières, during the Battle of the Somme. The costly fighting ended with the British in possession of the plateau north and east of the ...

in 1916 he led a group that charged the German trenches, killing 60 of the enemy and capturing four. Shortly afterwards he was injured in a bomb attack, and later suffered from

shell shock Shell shock is a term coined in World War I by the British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) many soldiers were afflicted with during the war (before PTSD was termed). It is a rea ...

. He was a made a

Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(MBE) in the Military Division for "most valuable services rendered in the War" in the King's Birthday Honours in 1919. Docker played one match for New South Wales in 1909 and the other 23 matches of his first-class career for the AIF team between May 1919 and February 1920. He later had a successful banking career with the

English, Scottish & Australian Bank The English, Scottish & Australian Bank Limited was an Australian bank founded in 1852 by Royal Charter in London and named English, Scottish and Australian Chartered Bank. Following a financial reconstruction in 1893 its business was renamed ...

in Australia and overseas, and served as head of the Australian Comforts Fund in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

.Growden, p. 136. In 1951 he married Hazel May Pearse (nee Sly) in Sydney.

References

External links

*
Cyril Docker
at CricketArchive 1884 births 1975 deaths Australian cricketers Australian military personnel of World War I Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire Australian Imperial Force Touring XI cricketers New South Wales cricketers Australian bankers Cricketers from Sydney {{Australia-cricket-bio-1880s-stub