John Philip Wilson,

DSC DSC or Dsc may refer to: Education * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dyal Sin ...

, AFC (3 April 1889 – 3 October 1959) 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, a decorated

World War I 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 ...

pilot and winner of the

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England. First run in 1839, it ...

in 1925.

Early life

He was born in April 1889 at

Gilling Castle Gilling Castle is a Grade I listed English country house, country house near Gilling East, North Yorkshire, England (). History The castle was originally the home of the Etton family, who appeared there at the end of the 12th century. It was ...

in the

North Riding The North Riding of Yorkshire was a subdivision of Yorkshire, England, alongside York, the East Riding and West Riding. The riding's highest point was at Mickle Fell at . From the Restoration it was used as a lieutenancy area, having b ...

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 ...

. He was educated at

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 ...

, London, England.

Cricket

He made his debut 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 ...

against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

in the

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 ...

in August 1911, one of six matches he played for the county that month. He played against the touring

South Africans South Africans are the citizens of South Africa (officially the Republic of South Africa ''RSA. These individuals include those residing within the borders of South Africa, as well as the South African diaspora. History The first modern inh ...

and

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

in August the following year, and against the

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) in September to round out his nine match Yorkshire first-class career. His final two matches came for

H. D. G. Leveson-Gower Sir Henry Dudley Gresham Leveson Gower ( ; 8 May 1873 – 1 February 1954) was an English cricketer from the Leveson-Gower family. He played first-class cricket for Oxford University and Surrey and captained England in Test cricket. His school n ...

's XI against Oxford and Cambridge Universities at

The Saffrons The Saffrons is a multi-purpose sports ground in Eastbourne, East Sussex. The ground is home to Eastbourne Cricket Club, Eastbourne Town Football Club, Eastbourne Hockey Club and Compton Croquet Club. There is also a sand dressed astroturf pitch ...

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

, in the final summer before the start of World War I. He was not prolific in the first-class arena. His best innings was a knock of 36 against

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 ...

at Bradford, while his solitary first-class wicket was that of J. W. Hitch, the

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 ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

. He also played for the Yorkshire Second XI, and in country house cricket for the Yorkshire Gentlemen.

Military service

After gaining his pilots licence on a

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...

in June 1914, he was commissioned into the

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...

on the outbreak of war as a probationary flight sub-lieutenant, being confirmed in his rank on 16 September, and was promoted to flight lieutenant on 31 December. In April 1915 he attacked two German

submarines A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or info ...

lying at anchor alongside the Mole at

Zeebrugge Zeebrugge (; from , meaning "Bruges-on-Sea"; , ) is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and a seafront resort with ...

with four bombs "with successful results." Later that summer, on 7 June he attacked the

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

shed at

Evere Evere (; ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium). , the municipality had a population of 43,608 inhabitants. The total area is , which gives a population density of . In common with all of Brussels' municipal ...

, north of Brussels in a daring night attack, a mission for which he and his co-pilot J. S. Mills, were awarded the

Distinguished Service Cross The Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C.) is a military decoration for courage. Different versions exist for different countries. *Distinguished Service Cross (Australia) *Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) *Distinguished Service Cross (U ...

. On 1 January 1916, Wilson was promoted to

flight commander A flight commander is the leader of a constituent portion of an aerial squadron in aerial operations, often into combat. That constituent portion is known as a flight, and usually contains six or fewer aircraft, with three or four being a common ...

, and on 31 December to squadron commander. He was made a ''Chevalier'' of the Belgian Order of the Crown on 29 August 1917. On 1 April 1918, the Royal Naval Air Service was merged with the Army's Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force, and Wilson joined the new service with the equivalent rank of

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

. In the

1919 New Year Honours The 1919 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were published in ''The London Gazette'' and ''The Times'' in Janu ...

, announced on 1 January 1919, he was awarded the Air Force Cross "''in recognition of distinguished service''". On 22 March 1919 Wilson relinquished his commission "''on account of ill-health''". He was allowed to retain his rank.

Post-war life

Although he continued in club cricket after the war, his new claim to fame came as an amateur steeplechase jockey. He rode more than 200 winners, rode in

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England. First run in 1839, it ...

three times, and won on Double Chance in

1925 Events January * January 1 – The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini m ...

. He died in October 1959 in

Tickton Tickton is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Tickton is approximately east from Beverley, lying to the south of the A1035 road. The village is about long and contains two churches, ...

Beverley Beverley is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located north-west of Hull city centre. At the 2021 census the built-up area of the town had a population of 30,930, and the smaller civil parish had ...

, East Riding of Yorkshire.

Personal life

In 1915 he married Louisa Harrison-Broadley. His wife's elder sister was married to

Stanley Jackson Stanley Jackson may refer to: * Stanley Jackson (cricketer) (1870–1947), English cricketer and politician * Stanley Jackson (gridiron football) (born 1975), quarterback * Stan Jackson (quarterback), quarterback for Cal Poly Pomona, set college fo ...

, former England cricket captain; Jackson thus became Wilson's brother-in-law.

References

External links

Cricket Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Jack 1889 births 1959 deaths People educated at Harrow School People from Gilling East Cricket in North Yorkshire Royal Naval Air Service aviators British World War I flying aces Cricketers from Yorkshire Yorkshire cricketers English jockeys Royal Navy officers of World War I Royal Air Force personnel of World War I English cricketers Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Knights of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers Military personnel from North Yorkshire 20th-century English sportsmen