Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | John Lawson Richards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Williton, Somerset, England | 6 October 1918||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 2 November 1944 Gelderland, German-occupied Netherlands | (aged 26)||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1939 | Cambridge University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source: Cricinfo, 6 August 2020 |
John Lawson Richards (6 October 1918 – 2 November 1944) was an English first-class cricketer and British Army officer.
Born in Williton in October 1918, Richards was educated at Monmouth School and Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he played several sports, including cricket.[1] He entered Selwyn College in 1938, where he read mathematics.[1] Between 24-26 May 1939, Richards made his only first-class appearance for Cambridge against Yorkshire, in which he was bowled twice for a duck and did not gain any runs.[2][3]
On 8 June 1940, seven months after the outbreak of the Second World War, Richards was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, in which he was involved in bomb disposal.[1][4] During leave periods in 1941 and 1942, he appeared for Cambridge in six wartime cricket matches.[5] Richards was killed in the Netherlands on 2 November 1944 and is buried at Jonkerbos War Cemetery.[1][6]