George William Beldam (1 May 1868 – 23 November 1937) was an English

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 and a pioneer of action photography in sport. George Beldam was the eldest child of a family that was descended from seventeenth-century

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

. He studied engineering at

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...

, before joining the family engineering company. He captained Peterhouse at cricket, football and tennis, and later played for Brentford F.C. He was a steady right-handed batsman and a right-arm bowler who represented

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) and London County in first-class cricket between 1900 and 1907. He scored 6,575 runs (average 30.02) with a personal best of 155 * against

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

in 1902 and took 83 catches and 107 wickets (average 30.63) with a personal best of 5/28 versus

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in 1902. He became a noted artist and photographer. He was the first action photographer of sport in Britain, specialising in cricket and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

. He collaborated with C.B. Fry on two instructional books, Beldam providing the illustrations and some of the text: * ''Great Batsmen: Their Methods at a Glance'' (1905) * ''Great Bowlers and Fielders: Their Methods at a Glance'' (1907) His brother, Cyril Beldam, and a cousin, Ernest Beldam, also played first-class cricket. Beldam was a member of the committee that built and opened London's first public golf courses in Richmond Park, which were opened in 1923 and 1925. A biography of him was written by a descendant: * George Alastair Beldam, ''Third Man in: Lost World of a Camera Artist – G.W.Beldam and the Art of Edwardian Cricket'', The George Beldam Collection, 1995, Beldam married three times. He left his first wife, Gertrude, and married the much younger Margaret Underwood in 1921, then in turn left Margaret and married the even younger Christina in 1930. All three marriages produced children. He and Christina lived on 24 acres near

Farnham Farnham is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tributary of the ...

. He died of a heart attack in 1937. His son by his second marriage,

Roy Beldam Sir Alexander Roy Asplin Beldam, PC (29 March 1925 – 16 October 2020) was a British judge who served as Lord Justice of Appeal in England and Wales from 1989 until 2000. Early years He was the son of the first-class cricketer and photographe ...

(1925–2020), became a barrister and a High Court judge.Beldam
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References

Cited sources

* Gideon Haigh (2016) ''Stroke of Genius: Victor Trumper and the Shot that Changed Cricket'', Hamish Hamilton, Melbourne, .

External links

*
Cricinfo profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beldam, George 1868 births 1937 deaths A. J. Webbe's XI cricketers Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Brentford F.C. players Cricketers from the London Borough of Lewisham English cricketers English men's footballers English people of French descent Footballers from the London Borough of Lewisham Gentlemen cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Gentlemen of the South cricketers London County cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Men's association football players not categorized by position Middlesex cricketers North v South cricketers People from New Cross Photographers from Kent Photographers from London Sports photographers