Henry Anthony Pawson (22 August 1921 – 12 October 2012) was an English sportsman who played

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 ...

and

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and was a leading fly fisherman. He worked as a cricket writer and journalist. He was the son of Guy Pawson, and father of scientist Anthony Pawson.

Biography

Pawson was born at

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, southwest of central London. It grew up around Chertsey Abbey, founded in AD 666 by Earconwald, St Erkenwald, and gained a municipal charter, market charter from Henry I of Engla ...

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 educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

. During the Second World War he served in the

Rifle Brigade The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...

, reaching the rank of Major and seeing active service in Italy and Tunisia, being

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

. He worked for Reed International where he became Personnel Director, and then as an industrial relations adviser. Pawson played a total of 69

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 ...

matches for

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and

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 ...

. He batted right-handed, scoring 3,807 runs (including seven centuries) at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 37.32. He captained Oxford in 1948 when they defeated

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 ...

by an innings. Pawson was a good all-round sportsman and also played

to a high level. He won a

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

for Oxford University and played two league matches for

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Charlton, south-east London, England. The team compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Their home ground is ...

, scoring on his debut versus

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

in December 1951. He was a member of the Pegasus A.F.C. team that won the

FA Amateur Cup The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status. History Following the legalisation of professionalism within footb ...

in 1951Land and Water
Kent Cricket Heritage Trust, 2 July 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-13. and a member of the Great Britain football squad for the 1952 Summer Olympic Games although he did not feature in any of the team's matches. He played as a winger. He became cricket correspondent of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' and chaired the Cricket Writers' Club, 1980–81. He was regarded as one of the world's leading

fly fishermen Fly fishing is an angling technique that uses an ultra-lightweight lure called an artificial fly, which typically mimics small invertebrates such as flying and aquatic insects to attract and catch fish. Because the mass of the fly lure is ins ...

and was individual World Fly Fishing Champion in 1984. He also won world titles as part of the England national team. In the

1988 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in sup ...

, he was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire 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 ...

(OBE) for "services to angling". He died on 12 October 2012, aged 91.Kent batsman Tony Pawson dies

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

, 12 October 2012. Retrieved 4 June 2020.

Select bibliography

* ''The Football Managers'' 1973 * ''The Goalscorers: From Bloomer to Keegan'' 1978 * ''Runs and Catches'' 1980 * ''Gareth Edwards on Fishing'' 1984 (with

Gareth Edwards Gareth Edwards may refer to: *Gareth Edwards (Berkshire cricketer) (born 1973), English cricketer *Gareth Edwards (filmmaker) (born 1975), British filmmaker *Gareth Edwards (producer) (born 1965), British radio and television writer and producer *Ga ...

) * ''Flyfishing Around the World: The International Guide for the Gamefisher'' 1987 * ''Two Game Fishermen: An Hereditary Passion'' 1993 (with John Pawson) * ''Kingswood Book of Fishing'' 1992 (with John Pawson)

References

External links

*
Cricket Writers' Club
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pawson, Tony 1921 births 2012 deaths Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Angling writers British Army personnel of World War II English male journalists British fishermen Sportspeople from Chertsey Charlton Athletic F.C. players Cricket writers English cricketers Military personnel from Surrey English men's footballers Men's association football wingers English Football League players English sportswriters Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Kent cricketers Officers of the Order of the British Empire Olympic footballers for Great Britain Oxford University cricketers The Observer people People educated at Winchester College Rifle Brigade officers Gentlemen cricketers East of England cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers Cricketers from Surrey 20th-century English sportsmen