Cyril Theodore Anstruther Wilkinson

CBE 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 o ...

(4 October 1884 – 16 December 1970) was an English

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shootin ...

player who competed in the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; nl, Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; german: Olympische Sommerspiele 1920), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIe olympiade; nl, Spelen van ...

for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

. The team won the gold medal. He was also a

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, as well as Registrar of the Probate and Divorce Registry from 1936 to 1959.

Hockey

As well as appearing for

as a member of the gold medal winning team in the 1920 Olympics, he also represented and captained the England side. At club level, he played for Hampstead.

Cricket

He made his debut in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for The Gentlemen of England in 1908. He subsequently played for Surrey between 1909 and 1920. He captained the side in 1914, when it won the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It b ...

, 1919 and 1920, though he had to miss a number of matches through business commitments. He was a useful right-handed batsman who, in 54 first-class appearances, scored 1,773 runs at an average of 25.32, with 3 centuries and a highest score of 135. This innings was against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

, and it took him less than two hours. He was an occasional

slow left-arm bowler Left-arm orthodox spin, Left-arm off spin also known as slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling, is a type of left-arm finger spin bowling in the sport of cricket. Left-arm orthodox spin is bowled by a left-arm bowler using the fingers to spin ...

, with 23 wickets to his credit at 31.47 and best innings figures of 6-43. His last senior match (though not first-class) was a two-day fixture in 1928 in which he played for the

Civil Service cricket team A Civil Service cricket team made just one appearance in first-class cricket, when they played the touring New Zealanders, who were on their first tour of England, at the Civil Service Sports Ground in Chiswick in 1927. The New Zealanders proved ...

against the touring West Indians. Subsequently he was an enthusiastic club cricketer, He appeared every August for

Sidmouth Sidmouth () is a town on the English Channel in Devon, South West England, southeast of Exeter. With a population of 12,569 in 2011, it is a tourist resort and a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. A large part of the town ...

. In 1953, when aged 69, he scored 50 and took all ten wickets against the Nondescripts. His father, Anthony Wilkinson, also played first-class cricket.

Outside sport

He was born at Elvet Hill, County Durham,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and was educated at

Blundell's School Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the t ...

. During his time as Registrar of the Probate and Divorce Registry, he was joint editor of the Seventh Edition of William Rayden's ''Practice and law in the Divorce Division of the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...

and on appeal therefrom'', published in 1958 by Butterworth. The volume runs to 1311 pages. He was appointed as a

Commander 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 ...

(CBE) in the 1954

Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are pres ...

. He died at

Honiton Honiton ( or ) is a market town and civil parish in East Devon, situated close to the River Otter, north east of Exeter in the county of Devon. Honiton has a population estimated at 11,822 (based on mid-year estimates for the two Honiton Ward ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

References

External links

*
Hockey profile
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20200418040030/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/wi/cyril-wilkinson-1.html Olympic profile {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkinson, Cyril 1884 births 1970 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English male field hockey players English Olympic medallists Olympic field hockey players for Great Britain Field hockey players at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain English cricketers Surrey cricketers Surrey cricket captains People educated at Blundell's School Olympic medalists in field hockey Gentlemen of England cricketers Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics 20th-century English lawyers