Ernest Richard Sheepshanks (22 March 1910 – 31 December 1937), also known as Dick Sheepshanks, was an English

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er who played one match for

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is a professional Cricket club based in Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the County Championship, the top tier of English First-class cricket. Nicknamed "Vikings". Yorkshire also competes in T20 Blast, O ...

in 1929, and a war correspondent who was killed in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

Personal

Sheepshanks was born at Arthington Hall, Leeds,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, England. His family had made its fortune in wool. He is buried in the churchyard at Arthington Hall.

Education and sports

Sheepshanks attended

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

, where he was

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

of cricket, and helped them win the annual fixture against

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

in 1928. He then studied at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, from 1928 to 1931, where he was a contemporary of

Victor Rothschild Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, (31 October 1910 – 20 March 1990), was a British scientist, intelligence officer during World War II, and later a senior executive with Royal Dutch Shell and N M Rothschild & Sons, and ...

and

Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet double agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection ...

. It was in his first year at Cambridge, in 1929, that he played for

against the

University A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

, although he never played for Cambridge University itself. Sheepshanks, as a right-handed batsman, scored 26 in his only innings. After

following on In cricket, a team who batted second and scored significantly fewer runs than the team who batted first may be forced to follow-on: to take their second innings immediately after their first. The follow-on can be enforced by the team who batted f ...

, Cambridge scored 425 for 7 and the match was drawn.

Journalism career

Sheepshanks joined

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

as a journalist on 16 October 1933. He died, aged 27, in December 1937 at

Caudiel Caudiel is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Alto Palancia, Castellón, Valencia, Spain. Geography The surrounding municipalities are Benafer, Fuente la Reina, Gaibiel, Higueras, Jérica, Montán, Pavías, Pina de Montalgrao, Villanuev ...

Teruel Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel (province), Teruel Province. It had a population of 35,900 as of 2022, making it the least populated provincial capital in Spain. It is noted for its har ...

, Spain, where he was working as a special correspondent at the

Battle of Teruel The Battle of Teruel was fought in and around the city of Teruel during the Spanish Civil War between December 1937 and February 1938, during the worst Spanish winter in 20 years.Hugh Purcell, p. 95. The battle was one of the bloodiest actions of ...

in the Spanish Civil War, covering the war from a pro-Franco position.Cricinfo Player Profile
retrieved 27 November 2008 A shell landed just in front of the press car he was in; Bradish Johnson of ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' was killed outright, Eddie Neil of

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

and Sheepshanks were fatally wounded, but

Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that had divulged British secr ...

of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', much later exposed as a Soviet spy, suffered only a minor head wound.

Controversy

Decades later Tom Duprée, British

honorary consul A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

at Saint Jean de Luz, France in 1937, suggested Philby had set a bomb in the car to kill Sheepshanks before he blew his cover, but Professor Donald Read considered this highly improbable.Keene, J. (2001) ''Fighting for Franco''.

References

External links

Cricinfo Profile
1910 births 1937 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Yorkshire cricketers Cricketers from Leeds Journalists killed while covering the Spanish Civil War English male journalists British people of the Spanish Civil War English cricketers People educated at Eton College 20th-century English sportsmen {{UK-journalist-stub