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Sporting War and Sporting Peace 1914-1919 - Colin Blythe and Kenneth Hutchings remembered

In the final part of Peter Bloor’s ‘Sporting War and Sporting Peace’ series, Peter reflects on how Kent cricketers Colin Blythe and Kenneth Hutchings were remembered after losing their lives in the First World War. 

Kent County Cricket Club remembers

Following the death of her husband Colin in action in November 1917 two letters, no doubt amongst many others, were delivered to the home of his widow, Gertrude Blythe. One had been sent by the Northamptonshire cricketer Claud Woolley, who had enlisted with Colin, giving the circumstances of his death - a shell had exploded above the working party he was leading - the other by the Kent Chairman Lord Harris, expressing ‘on behalf of the Kent Cricket Club our profound and respectful sympathy in her bereavement.’

The club’s Annual Meeting in May 1918 unanimously accepted the Committee’s recommendation that, after consulting with Gertrude, a mural tablet in memory of Colin be placed in Tonbridge Church and a memorial drinking fountain erected at the St. Lawrence Ground Canterbury.

The tablet was fixed in place in June 1919, and the memorial fountain unveiled - with Gertrude in attendance – in August, naming not only Colin but “also his comrades of the Kent Elevens who fell in the service of their country”, although one panel was dedicated solely to him as a man “unsurpassed among the famous bowlers of the period and beloved by his fellow cricketers.”

Tonbridge School remembers Kenneth

One of those also named on the memorial fountain and, like Colin, also remembered in Tonbridge, was his former county colleague Kenneth Hutchings, who had been killed during the Battle of the Somme in September 1916. Kenneth’s place of remembrance there was also a church, or rather the memorial gate at the entrance to the chapel of Tonbridge School, for whose cricket team he scored a school record 205 against West Kent in 1902, again topping the averages as he had in 1900 and 1901. In 1902, while still at the school, he also made his debut for Kent against Worcestershire at Tonbridge, scoring 10 in the first innings and 1 in the second.

He had opened in the second innings, presumably being given the opportunity of making the winning runs – Kent only needed 9 – on both his debut and home ground, and in 1903 was given another chance to make an impression there having been released from his teaching duties at a school in Harrow to play against Sussex. This would have been his second match for Kent but he was again frustrated, this time by the heavy rain that left parts of the ground flooded and forced the abandonment of the match without a ball bowled.

Kenneth certainly made an impression during subsequent Tonbridge Weeks though, scoring a ferocious 125 and then a match-saving 97 not out in the same match against Middlesex in 1906, 101 with characteristically powerful driving against Hampshire in 1907 and a brilliant 109 against Leicestershire in 1910.

Cricket remembers “the men who have gone”

When, as The Times put it, “the old game conjured up the old spirit to the old surroundings” after the war, there were “many among the players that one seeks in vain.” Colin and Kenneth were the two mentioned by name and due tribute was paid to them, and to their fallen comrades, before Kent’s first post-war match in the manner described by Ben Bennison of the Daily Telegraph:

‘We missed Colin Blythe, his wonderful bowling and his strange, stuttering run; there was no Kenneth Hutchings to give us the champagne of batting at Leyton when Kent against Essex began their first match of the season, for these two men have written their names on the mighty Roll of Honour: they lie ‘out there.’ But they were not forgotten, for when their comrades took the field they, together with [the Essex openers] the Rev. F.H. Gillingham and [Charles “Jack”] Russell, and the umpires, bared their heads and stood at attention so that they might pay tribute to the memories of the cricketers of Kent who have made the great sacrifice. And tears trickled down many faces.’ “But” Bennison continued, “we quickly stiffened and played the game as cricketers will do, be the circumstances what they may” - just as Kenneth had done on the Somme and Colin at Passchendaele.

Gertrude Blythe remembers: “A space has been reserved”

There was of course another loss to consider, that to Gertrude Blythe, who had been widowed at the age of 30 and who, in due course, received another letter, from the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission. Enclosing a Final Verification Form, the Commission requested that she confirm Colin’s personal details for his headstone and, advising her that “a space has been reserved”, invited her to submit the wording of a personal inscription to be added to it, subject to a 66-character limit and it being deemed appropriate.

Gertrude accepted the invitation and, with a character to spare, acknowledged the loss to both herself and to cricket with the simple yet moving inscription “In loving memory of my dear husband, the Kent & England cricketer.”

Remembering also:

Colin is buried in Oxford Road Cemetery near Ypres (now Ieper) with his three comrades who were also killed on November 8^th 1917, 49499 Private Osmond Salt, 44194 Private Harry Dye and 49471 Private Edward Bennett.

Kenneth’s body was never found and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.

References

The quotes and other information in this article are taken from Cricket A Weekly Record, the Tonbridge Free Press, the Kent and Sussex Courier and other local, mostly Kent, newspapers. Commemoration details from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site and the “A space has been reserved” episode of “The Old Front Line” podcast of October 2021.

Images: Colin Blythe and Kenneth Hutchings both Wills 1908, cap badges and colours of the KOYLI and The King’s Liverpool Regiment both Wills 1907. Banner image Wills 1929.

Video produced by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.