Brigadier Brigadier ( ) is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore (rank), commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several t ...

Godfrey James Bryan (29 December 1902 – 24 March 1991) was an English army officer and

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 ...

er. A left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

, he played

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 ...

between 1920 and 1935 for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

and the Army cricket team.Godfrey Bryan
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-06. His brothers

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, incl ...

and

Ronnie Ronnie may refer to: *Ronnie (name), a unisex pet name and given name * "Ronnie" (Four Seasons song), a song by FreakBob Gaudio and Bob Crewe * "Ronnie" (Metallica song), a song from the Metallica album ''Load'' *Ronnie Brunswijkstadion, an associ ...

also played for Kent, though Godfrey was considered as "possibly the most talented" of the three.Bryan, Godfrey James
Obituaries in 1991,

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

, 1992. Retrieved 2017-04-06. Bryan rose to the rank of brigadier in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, serving with the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

. He served during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and was stationed in Malaya during the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War, was a guerrilla warfare, guerrilla war fought in Federation of Malaya, Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Arm ...

.Seventh Supplement to the London Gazette
''

London Gazette London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...

'', 26 May 1953. Retrieved 2017-04-05.

Early life

Bryan was born in

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Prior to 1965, it was part of Kent. It is situated north of Elmers End and Eden Park, east of Penge, south of Lower Sydenham and Bellingham, and west ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, the son of Lindsay and Emily Bryan. His father was a solicitor.Lewis P (2014) ''For Kent and Country'', pp. 122–123. Brighton: Reveille Press. Bryan showed an early talent for cricket when playing at

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: New Zealand * Wellington College, Wellington, New Zealand * Wellington College of Education, now the Faculty of Education of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand * Wellington Girls' College, Wellington, N ...

. After making a string of centuries for the school XI he was referred to by

as the public school batsman of the year who "did wonders in school matches" Pardon S (1921
Dismal failure of the crusade against cricket, 1921
Notes by the Editor, ''

'', 1921. Retrieved 2017-04-05. He made his

debut for

in a

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

match against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

later in the same season, aged just 17, making an immediate impact by scoring a maiden first-class century in the match.First-class matches played by Godfrey Bryan
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-05.

Cricket career

Bryan attending the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of Officer (armed forces), commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers o ...

between 1921 and 1922, playing cricket in both years against Sandhurst.Miscellaneous matches played by Godfrey Bryan
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-14. The academy was in

and Bryan became a regular member of the Kent county team during the 1921 season, playing nine

matches as well as a match against the touring Australians. His top score of the year was 179 against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, adding 208 runs in only two hours with Lionel Hedges. He played 13 times for Kent the following year, after which his Army career meant that his availability for county cricket was limited.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939'', pp. 22–23.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2020-07-01.) In 1922 Bryan made his first appearance for the Royal Engineers Cricket Club in the annual Sappers vs Gunners match against the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. Bryan also made his debut for the

British Army cricket team The Army cricket team is a cricket team representing the British Army. The Army team played 51 first-class matches between 1912 and 1939, although a combined Army and Navy team had played two games against a combined Oxford and Cambridge team ...

in the same year and played four times for Kent. The Army cricket team had

status during the inter-war period and Bryan was able to play for both the Army and a few times for Kent in most years until the end of the 1929 season. He continued to play for the Army side and the Royal Engineers until 1951, taking part in 14 Gunners vs Sappers matches. Bryan made only three first-class appearances after 1929, playing his final match for Kent in 1933 against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

and his final first-classapperance in 1935 for the Army against

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. He played in a total of 70 first-class matches, scoring 3,192 runs and in club cricket played for Beckenham Cricket Club.Our history
Beckenham Cricket Club. Retrieved 2017-04-15. In 1925 he played alongside both of his brothers for Kent against

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 ...

, the only time all three played in the same team.Lewis ''

op. cit. ''Op. cit.'' is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase ' or ''opere citato'', meaning "the work cited" or ''in the cited work'', respectively. Overview The abbreviation is used in an endnote or footnote to refer the reader to a cited work, standing ...

'' pp. 123–127.

Military career

After attending

in 1921 and 1922, Bryan joined the

. In the early years of the 1930s he was stationed in the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

, where he played cricket for the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...

, United Services and Malaya Command between 1930 and 1932. He was stationed again in Malaya during the late 1930s and played for

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

and Straits Settlements. He rose to the rank of

and was stationed in Malaya during the

Family and later life

Two of his brothers,

and

, also played

for

. Bryan died at

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

in 1991 aged 88.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryan, Godfrey 1902 births 1991 deaths People from Beckenham Cricketers from the London Borough of Bromley English cricketers Straits Settlements cricketers Kent cricketers British Army cricketers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Combined Services cricketers Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich British Army personnel of World War II Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of the Malayan Emergency Military personnel from Kent British Army brigadiers 20th-century English sportsmen