George Michael Singleton

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

MC (12 May 191311 December 2002) 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 who played in three matches, appearing once for

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 ...

and twice for

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 ...

. He took five wickets with his left-arm spin and scored 34 runs in his five innings. He later played for the

Free Foresters Free Foresters Cricket Club is an England, English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' (or nomadic) club, having no home ground. The Free Foresters were founded by the ...

and

I Zingari I Zingari (from dialectalized Italian , meaning "the Gypsies"; corresponding to standard Italian ') are English and Australian amateur cricket clubs, founded in 1845 and 1888 respectively. It is the oldest and perhaps the most famous of the ' ...

. Singleton was born in

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 census was 2,707, increasing to 2 ...

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 ...

, where his father was a schoolmaster. In 1916, his father became headmaster of The Elms School in

Colwall Colwall is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Herefordshire, England, situated on the border with Worcestershire, nestling on the western side of the Malvern Hills at the heart of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, AONB. Areas of ...

. Michael was the eldest of four brothers. Sandy Singleton was a county cricketer who became captain of Oxford and Worcestershire. John became a farmer in Scotland, and Tim Singleton became President of the Law Society, and was knighted. He was educated at

Uppingham Uppingham is a market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Rutland, England, off the A47 between Leicester and Peterborough, south of Oakham. It had a population of 4,745 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 4,853 in 2019. ...

and

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

, and became a teacher at West Down School near

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

, before rejoining his father as a teacher at The Elms. In 1939, he joined the army and formed a company of the Hereford Light Infantry. He was seconded to the

King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) was a Light infantry, light infantry regiment of the British Army. It officially existed from 1881 to 1968, but its predecessors go back to 1755. In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somers ...

, landing in France shortly after

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

, where he won the MC. He was offered the opportunity to join the regular army in 1946, but returned to The Elms, where he succeeded his father as headmaster in 1948, remaining headmaster for 25 years, until 1973. He was also a local

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

, High Sheriff of

Hereford and Worcester Hereford and Worcester ( ) was an English non-metropolitan county created on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 from the areas of the former administrative county of Herefordshire, most of Worcestershire (except Halesowen, Stourbridg ...

, and a Deputy Lieutenant. He married Diana Philpot in 1939, and they had five children. He died in Malvern at the age of 89.

References

External links

*
Statistical summary
from CricketArchive
Obituary
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', 30 January 2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Singleton, Michael English cricketers People educated at Uppingham School Recipients of the Military Cross Worcestershire cricketers Free Foresters cricketers 1913 births 2002 deaths King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry officers British Army personnel of World War II People from Repton Cricketers from Derbyshire Deputy lieutenants of Herefordshire Herefordshire Light Infantry officers Military personnel from Derbyshire 20th-century English sportsmen Commanders_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire