Henry ‘Harry’ Lee, born October 26, 1890, had a long First-Class career, mostly for Middlesex on either side of The Great War. He fought in The War, was reported dead, and lived not only to tell the tale but also earn a Test cap (that was subsequently taken away) 15 years after the news of his death came out. In the interim he also coached the Maharaja of Cooch Behar. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at a larger-than-life character of the kind they have stopped making anymore.
Cheating death
1915. The Russians had attacked The Carpathians. The first of the Zeppelins had already raided Great Britain. The Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf had been set in motion. The Ottomans had already attacked the Suez Canal. The Gallipoli Campaign had started.
Europe had been ripped apart by The Great War. The obituaries section of Wisden 1915 swelled to an unprecedented 77 pages. It was also the year that marked the deaths of two men who redefined cricket in their own ways in their eras: WG Grace and Victor Trumper.
Harry, the eldest of the three cricket-playing brothers of the Lees of Marylebone, was of the right age to join The War. He was, to begin with, not interested in military activity at all.
Harry Lee wanted to be a cricketer. The son of a greengrocer (and coal merchant), Harry had persisted with his father’s profession for a while before he decided to write to MCC, applying for a job as ground-staff. He was only 15 at that point. It had taken him three years to break through to Middlesex Colts, and two more to make it to the first side.
He took his time. He scored a three-hour 139 against Nottinghamshire. The innings pleased fans and critics alike. Just when it seemed he had found a permanent spot in a star-studded side, The Great War had broken out. The reluctant boy, by now 24, was busy with his cricket when the Territorial Force marched through London.
The march had an impact on Lee, who decided to sign up. That was back in September 1, 1914. He was initially listed for the 13th Battalion, often referred to as The Kensingtons (a significant proportion hailed from Kensington). On February 25 he was posted to 1/13th Battalion.
By early March he was in France. On March 10, The Battle of Neuve Chapelle (often cited by teachers of War history as an example of trench warfare) broke out. As is common knowledge, Britain reclaimed Neuve Chapelle from Germany.
The Battle of Aubers Ridge commenced on May 9. Unfortunately for the British, the Germans had prepared themselves well in advance after Neuve Chapelle. While Britain struck the initial blows, they came at a heavy cost: they lost about 11,000 men, including Somerset cricketer Cecil Banes-Walker.
The Kensingtons took a major toll, losing 499 of their 550 men. Lee was presumed dead, for his corpse was nowhere to be found.
The news spread, and reached the Lee household. His parents held his memorial service soon afterwards. Thankfully, all that was not the truth — though it was not as far from the truth as the annual hoaxes regarding Morgan Freeman’s death are.
“I’m glad to say this was premature,” Lee would later write.
Harry Lee was out there, near-unconscious for three days in no-man’s land, a bullet having fractured his left femur. The first stages of gangrene had set in. The Germans eventually found him and sent him to Valenciennes in a cattle train.
Every single compartment (barring an OFFICERS ONLY one) was closed. Wounded soldiers were crammed inside. A single bucket was provided as a communal toilet. Lee lay on a sack of straw in near-unbearable pain before they transferred him to a French Red Cross train at Lille. There was no food, and several soldiers died during the journey.
After six weeks at Valenciennes he was sent to Hannover, and was handed over to the German Red Cross. Once again he had to travel, this time for two days. This time they put him on a wooden bench with just a blanket under him. His bad leg was put on an iron case. He was not given any food on the first day either. But then, Prisoners of Wars have been treated worse…
Things were improving when he was at Hannover, but Lee decided to exaggerate the injury and acquire permission to return home. He boarded the vessel to England in October.
Harry Lee was discharged on December 4. He was honoured with the Silver War Badge, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal. He worked as a filing clerk in the War Office.
Unfortunately, when they treated him back in England, the verdict was that he had suffered “significant” muscle death, and one of his legs would be permanently shorter than the other. Both combat and cricket were ruled out.
He would not have a career to match Len Hutton’s, but he would certainly prove the doctors wrong. Fortunately, Middlesex believed in him and even paid for his treatment. He scored a hundred for Army Service Corps against Lancing College in 1916.
By 1917 he was back in business, taking 4 wickets for MCC against Eton. He then played for the British Army, taking 5 for 23 against Australian Imperial Forces; in another month he claimed 3 for 73 for a combined Army and Navy against combined Australian and South African Forces.
Cheating death: The sequel
The offer came from the wife of Middlesex champion Frank Tarrant. Lee’s illustrious colleague had found occupation in India, and Mrs Tarrant insisted Lee joined him in Calcutta.
That was in 1916. It did not materialise, for Lee lost his mother, and had to look after younger brothers Jack and Frank, both in their teens. It took him a year for him to settle things before he set sail.
Lee was supposed to take the Nyanza to Bombay. Instead, he boarded the Nagoya (it was a last-moment decision) that sailed directly to Calcutta. About 32 km after it set sail from Plymouth, the Nyanza was torpedoed, resulting in the death of 49.
It was not that the Nagoya had a peaceful journey. The vessel was part of a convoy that was attacked en route, which resulted in the sinking of the City of Lucknow.
Harry Lee had managed to cheat death again.
Indian adventures
Lee was appointed cricket and football coach of the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, that great patron of Bengal cricket. It was a curious experience. Lee later recollected in his autobiography about the ‘rules’ one had to follow during matches: “Whatever you do, don’t get the Maharajah out for a duck. He doesn’t like it.” Lee added that the monarch smashed Lee for “several sixes in the course of two or three overs.”
Here, away from the stench of gunpowder and blood, he resumed his career, almost winning his first match with Tarrant. The match at Bombay was evenly contested. Both Tarrant and Lee turned out for the Maharaja’s XI, as did Test cricketer Morice Bird; they were pitted against an XI named after Lord Willingdon, then Viceroy of India, featuring HD Kanga and the Palwankar brothers Vithal, Ganpat, and Shivram — all brothers of the legendary Baloo.
The Maharaja’s side were bowled out for 112, but Lee (5 for 11) and Tarrant (4 for 34) secured an 8-run lead. Lee (23) and Tarrant (20) now added 45 for the opening stand before their side collapsed to 125, leaving the opposition a target of 134.
Once again Lee (3 for 41) and Tarrant (4 for 45) kept striking. Former Sussex tearaway Harry Simms (who would play for Warwickshire after The War) also got 2 wickets, but Willingdon’s XI scraped through by 1 wicket.
India’s first Test was still over 13 years away when an ‘England’ side took on ‘India’ at Bombay. Lee shouldered the burden in absence of Tarrant with 4 for 177, but the Englishmen succumbed to the wily Hormasji Vajifdar. Gerald Weigall (whose brother Louis also played) and Philip Pank kept ‘India’ at bay, saving the match with a solitary wicket standing between the hosts at bay.
The match deserves special mention. In the ‘India’ innings their No. 7, a youthful army-man, scored an attractive 122. Lee called this youngster, one Major CK Nayudu, a “very fine bat”.
Two months later, for Bird’s XI against the Maharaja’s XI, Lee claimed 3 for 79 and 4 for 36, and also scored 104.
The career
Harry Lee played till 43, amassing 20,158 runs at 29.95 with 38 hundreds from all sorts of places in the batting-order, mostly banking on his impressive array of leg-side strokes. Wisden wrote of his batsmanship: “A squat, crouching stance and much patience prevented him from winning hearts in the way that the cheeky and brilliant [Patsy] Hendren or dapper [JW] Hearne did, but his toughness was acknowledged and appreciated.”
Lee bowled a mixed bag of seam and off-breaks. They fetched him 401 wickets from 437 matches at 30.61 with 12 five-fors and 3 ten-fors. He also held 180 catches.
For Middlesex he got 18,594 runs and 340 wickets, making him one of only nine men to make it to the 10,000 run-300 wicket double for the county. The illustrious list consists of names like Tarrant, Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, and Fred Titmus.
None of them, however, had achieved the feat, or any feat, after being announced dead.
He also played a Test — albeit accidentally — and was quickly forgotten. But more of that later.
The first cap
Harry Lee’s affinity towards cricket came from his father, a passionate follower of the sport. The three Lee brothers were born and brought up in Marylebone, which made them part of a handful of Middlesex cricketers who hailed from the district.
Lee honed his skills by bowling at a light-post when he was young. His logic was simple: “If a bowler can clean bowl a man nine times out of ten against a lamp-post, he will not miss a full-sized wicket when he gets the chance.”
Nicknamed Ginger (as redheads have been since the beginning of time) in his early days, Lee showed up at the trials that season along with a group of other boys. He later admitted in his autobiography that he started by sending down “six of the worst balls that anyone can have pitched”.
However, he bowled better through the day. The jury consisting of Lord’s head groundsman Tom Hearne and Test umpire Alfred Atfield selected him for the Lord’s ground-staff in 1906.
He came under the tutelage of Test cricketer Teddy Wynyard, who, among others insisted Lee honed his all-rounder. As mentioned above, he started playing for Middlesex by 1911.
The first three seasons had passed by without much ado. Earning a county cap was not a simple task in those days, but Lee would have none of it. He broke all norms and actually asked for his Middlesex cap in 1913. Not only did a surprised (confused, too?) Plum Warner send across the cap, he also insisted the Middlesex cap be sent to the individuals in future.
Lords at Lord’s
Harry Lee refuted all medical advice by slamming 4 hundreds and an unbeaten 91 in his first Post-War season. His 1,223 runs came at 40.76 (including 163 and 126 in the same match, against Surrey), and he also got 27 wickets. The following season saw him score 1,518 runs at 43.37 and claim 52 wickets at 20.23.
The second season was 1920, in which Middlesex claimed the Championship following that iconic end-season thriller at Lord’s in front of a jam-packed crowd. Middlesex had to win the match, for Lancashire had beaten Warwickshire to achieve a lead.
For the uninitiated, Surrey led by 73 in the first innings, but Lee and Challen Skeet added 208 for the opening wicket in no time. Lee scored 108 while Skeet, playing the match in a rare gap between Oxford and a posting in Sudan, got 106. This gave Warner a chance to set Surrey 244 in 3 hours.
Surrey, boasting of Jack Hobbs, Andy Sandham, and Percy Fender, collapsed to 188 against Greville Stevens (5 for 61) and Hearne (3 for 37).
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Earlier that season he had carried his bat through the innings against Essex, scoring 80 out of a team total of 212. He also had 4 for 83 in the match.
Before that was 7 for 44 and 5 for 48 against Cambridge; a week before that, 6 for 34 and 87 not out against Somerset; and another week back, unbeaten innings of 221 and 32 in a 9-wicket win against Hampshire when nobody from either side reached 100.
Even before that his 5 for 21 had been responsible in bowling out Sussex for 232. Warner, Lee, Hearne, and Nigel Haig had all slammed hundreds, and Warner had declared on 543 for 4. Still not done, Lee had taken 6 for 47 to skittle out Sussex for 181.
Of Middlesex batsmen only Hendren and Hearne got more runs in that season of glory, while nobody got more hundreds; and only Hearne, Jack Durston, and Stevens got more wickets.
The march of Lee
Lee played for 16 seasons after The War, including only 5 matches in his last season, 1934. In 12 of these he crossed the 1,000-run mark in England. He even made it to 1,995 runs in 1928. In addition to that, he got 996 runs in England in 1923, but added another 16 to that in a match in Scotland, taking his tally to 13.
He never got to 100 wickets in a season, but came as close as 72 (at 19.67) in 1921, when Middlesex won the title for the second consecutive time. England lost 8 out of 10 Ashes Tests in less than a year. They had 25 debutants during this phase, but Lee was not one of them.
The same season he improved on his career-best, 243 not out against Nottinghamshire. He would have two more double-hundreds, both in 1929, but would not improve on his highest score. By then he was approaching forty. That season he also scored two hundreds in the same match again, this time against Lancashire facing a ‘fiery’ Ted McDonald.
In 1922 he scored 68 against Gloucestershire — an innings he regarded as his finest. In 1923 he wrecked Gloucestershire with 8 for 39 and 4 for 27. And in 1924 he would carry his bat through an innings again, this time in a low-scoring affair — once again keeping Essex at bay. This time his 52 came out of a total of 132.
By the end-1920s he was a much sought-after coach in South Africa. He coached, among other sides, South African College School (Cape Town), St Andrews School and Greys College (Bloemfontein), and St Andrews College (Grahamstown). All that, however, did not stop him from playing for Middlesex in the summers.
The three brothers
Let us now turn our attentions to John William ‘Jack’ and Frank Stanley Lee. Jack, 12 years younger to Harry, broke through to the Middlesex ranks in 1923. Unfortunately, he found Middlesex too strong to find a regular spot, and shifted to Somerset in 1925 — the same season in which Frank made his Middlesex debut. Four years later Frank joined Jack at Somerset.
Jack, the all-rounder (he bowled leg-breaks), played for Somerset till 1936. He scored 7,856 runs and claimed 495 wickets. He was during the Invasion of Normandy during the Second World War.
Frank’s career extended till after the War. His tally amounted to scored 15,310 runs. He was also an occasional wicketkeeper.
Harry (1,141), Jack (1,122), and Frank (1,101) all crossed the 1,000-mark barrier in 1933. It was the first time that three brothers achieved the same in a season. It is curious, the way they all finished within 39 runs of each other.
Note: In the same season an unrelated Garnet Lee of Derbyshire scored 1,078 runs. The other Lee of the season, Arthur of Hampshire, ruined the set by scoring a duck in his only innings.
That, however, was not the only time they became part of a statistical curiosity. At Lord’s in the same season Harry scored 82 before being famously caught by Frank off Jack. “I do not believe that brothers had ever before behaved so unbrotherly in a First-Class game,” recollected Harry.
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The second cap
Harry Lee’s career was as good as over when England were touring South Africa in 1930-31. A string of injuries on the tour forced captain Percy Chapman to the most capable Englishman in the vicinity. Lee responded to the SOS, and started by reaching double-figures in his first 5 innings in tour matches.
With England trailing 0-1 after 3 Tests, Lee was handed out a Test cap in the fourth Test at Johannesburg. The match ended in an exciting draw after England set South Africa 317 and reduced them to 153 for 5, but captain Jock Cameron kept his head down and bailed out the hosts with support from Ken Viljoen, Quintin McMillan, and ‘Buster’ Nupen.
Lee opened batting with Bob Wyatt in each innings. He was first out in each innings, leg-before to Nupen for 18 and caught by Bruce Mitchell off Bob Catterall for 1, and never played another Test. South Africa claimed the series following another draw at Durban.
Note: Lee’s undistinguished performance was reminiscent of another Test debut in Brisbane, back in 1928-29. The debutant in question scored 18 and 1 and was dropped for the next Test, just like Lee. However, he did make a comeback, and once he did, Don Bradman had a decent career of sorts.
The Test came at a stage when Lee had probably given up hopes of a Test cap. That longing, unfortunately, remained unfulfilled, for MCC had received a complaint from the Grahamstown College: though Lee had responded to national duties, he had apparently broken a coaching contract with the college in the process.
MCC gave him neither the Test cap nor the blazer. Scant consolation came when Hobbs gave him a tour tie.
Post-retirement
Middlesex did not issue Lee a fresh contract after 1934, something that did not make him happy despite his age. He was paid £500 after retirement. His benefit season, back in 1927, had yielded £1,300.
He later became an umpire, and coached at Downside School. His wrote the somewhat obscure How’s That: Every Cricketer’s Guide to Umpiring, more of a brochure than a book. It was published in 1947.
His wonderful autobiography Forty Years of English Cricket (with excursions to India and South Africa), edited by Laurence Thompson, came out in 1948, two years after he retired as a First-Class umpire (hence the ‘forty years’ bit in the title).
In his later days Lee was a permanent feature in Mound Stand at Lord’s during matches. He famously remained unfazed during the bomb scare at the ground when West Indies played England in 1973.
Harry Lee died in Middlesex Hospital on April 21, 1980. He was 90. At the time of his death he was the second-oldest surviving English cricketer after Sandham.
Thompson wrote in Lee’s co-authored autobiography: “If he had any spark of genius at all, it was for not keeping his mouth shut at the proper time.”
“Today that would be worth money,” quipped Wisden in his obituary.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketCountry. He blogs at ovshake.blogspot.com and can be followed on Twitter @ovshake42.)
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