George Bent Buckley (1885 – 26 April 1962) was an English surgeon and a celebrated

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

historian and an authority on the early days of the game. Buckley was born in

Saddleworth Saddleworth is a civil parishes in England, civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and Hamlet (place), hamlets as well as suburbs of Oldham on the Saddleworth Moor, west ...

, then part of

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 ...

, the son of Arthur and Jane Buckley, his father was a solicitor. A

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

by profession, he won the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth of ...

in 1916 for working under fire when he was serving with the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The citation for the medal appeared in ''

The London Gazette ''The London Gazette'', known generally as ''The Gazette'', is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, i ...

'' in November 1916 and reads as follows: He was a senior surgeon at

Manchester Royal Infirmary Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) is a large NHS teaching hospital in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England. Founded by Charles White in 1752 as part of the voluntary hospital movement of the 18th century, it is now a major regional and nati ...

and member of the Manchester Medical Society. Photographs of him as a surgeon and soldier (prisoner of war) are held in the

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Image Collections. After he retired, he devoted his time to researching early cricket history and travelled all over England to visit local libraries. He collected a mass of cricket historical material from old newspapers and dutifully noted every reference he could find relating to 18th century cricket. His researches were consolidated in his two classic books: ''Fresh Light on Eighteenth Century Cricket'' (1935) and ''Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket'' (1937). He moved to

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

in 1938 and lived in a Victorian house close to the local cricket ground.

John Arlott Leslie Thomas John Arlott, (25 February 1914 – 14 December 1991) was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's '' Test Match Special''. He was also a poet and wine connoisseur. With his poetic phraseology, he becam ...

states in the 1980 version of ''Barclay's World of Cricket'' that Mr Buckley's researches were continued in volumes of photo-reproduced typescript and manuscript, produced under the aegis of

Rowland Bowen Rowland Francis Bowen (27 February 1916 – 4 September 1978) was a British Army officer and a cricket researcher, historian and writer. Educated at Westminster School, Bowen received an emergency commission in April 1942 into the Indian A ...

in 1960.''Barclay's World of Cricket''; 2nd ed., 1980, Collins Publishers, , p. 575. It is probable that even more unpublished notes by Buckley still exist.

Works by G. B. Buckley

* G. B. Buckley, ''Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket'', Cotterell, 1935. * G. B. Buckley, ''Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket'', Cotterell, 1937.

References

External sources

Obituary from 1963 edition of ''Wisden''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckley, G. B. 1885 births 1962 deaths Cricket writers Royal Army Medical Corps officers Recipients of the Military Cross British Army personnel of World War I People from Saddleworth 20th-century English surgeons Military personnel from the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham