Gerald BRODRIBB MA PhD
21 May 1915 – 7 October 1999
Dr Arthur Gerald Norcott BRODRIBB was born on 21 May 1915 in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. He graduated in Classics and English from University College, Oxford, where his tutor had been C. S. Lewis (the author of, amongst other works, The Chronicles of Narnia), and became a schoolmaster at St Peter’s School, Seaford and Christ’s Hospital before going on to Repton and Canford. In 1956 he bought his old prep school, Hydneye House, near Hastings, East Sussex and became its headmaster until 1968 when the school was forced to close due to the local authority’s plan to build a comprehensive school on the site, and this effectively ended his teaching career.
Brodribb was a descendent of the Victorian actor Sir Henry Irving (born John Henry Brodribb) and a founder member of The Cricket Society. Whilst at Oxford he took an MCC coaching course, playing for his college team and on occasions represented the MCC. He published thirty books on cricket; his best known work in this genre is Next Man In (1952) which "took cricket's Laws, and re-examined them all with an eye to their quirks, oddities and exceptions". Among his other famous works are Hit for Six (1960), “a compendium of the big-hitters in cricket”, and The Croucher, a biography of the early twentieth century cricketer Gilbert Jessop, as well as biographies of Nicholas Felix (Nicholas Wanostrocht) and Maurice Tate.
Later in his career, he took an interest in archaeology, particularly the Roman iron-working site at Beauport Park, near Hastings, East Sussex which he excavated in the late 1960s. Here he found a well preserved bath-house as well as hundreds of tile fragments stamped ‘CL BR’ (Classis Britannica) which he recorded, classified and published in several academic papers. He subsequently studied at London University’s Institute of Archaeology and was awarded a doctorate in 1985 for his thesis on Roman building materials and published Roman Brick and Tile in 1987.
The Beauport Park estate has since been purchased by Duncan Bannatyne and now comprises the hotel, a health club, a riding school, a caravan park, a 186-acre (0.75 km2) golf course and 164 acres (0.66 km2) of surrounding woodland.
Brodribb’s interest in archaeology and cricket never dimmed and he continued to encourage children in these interests. He joined forces with Dave PERKINS and helped form the EWHURST UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB in the late 1970s.
He died on 7 October 1999.
Sources: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Brodribb
Wisden Almanack – Obituaries 1999
The Society of Antiquaries of London, Obituary Archive
21 May 1915 – 7 October 1999
Dr Arthur Gerald Norcott BRODRIBB was born on 21 May 1915 in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. He graduated in Classics and English from University College, Oxford, where his tutor had been C. S. Lewis (the author of, amongst other works, The Chronicles of Narnia), and became a schoolmaster at St Peter’s School, Seaford and Christ’s Hospital before going on to Repton and Canford. In 1956 he bought his old prep school, Hydneye House, near Hastings, East Sussex and became its headmaster until 1968 when the school was forced to close due to the local authority’s plan to build a comprehensive school on the site, and this effectively ended his teaching career.
Brodribb was a descendent of the Victorian actor Sir Henry Irving (born John Henry Brodribb) and a founder member of The Cricket Society. Whilst at Oxford he took an MCC coaching course, playing for his college team and on occasions represented the MCC. He published thirty books on cricket; his best known work in this genre is Next Man In (1952) which "took cricket's Laws, and re-examined them all with an eye to their quirks, oddities and exceptions". Among his other famous works are Hit for Six (1960), “a compendium of the big-hitters in cricket”, and The Croucher, a biography of the early twentieth century cricketer Gilbert Jessop, as well as biographies of Nicholas Felix (Nicholas Wanostrocht) and Maurice Tate.
Later in his career, he took an interest in archaeology, particularly the Roman iron-working site at Beauport Park, near Hastings, East Sussex which he excavated in the late 1960s. Here he found a well preserved bath-house as well as hundreds of tile fragments stamped ‘CL BR’ (Classis Britannica) which he recorded, classified and published in several academic papers. He subsequently studied at London University’s Institute of Archaeology and was awarded a doctorate in 1985 for his thesis on Roman building materials and published Roman Brick and Tile in 1987.
The Beauport Park estate has since been purchased by Duncan Bannatyne and now comprises the hotel, a health club, a riding school, a caravan park, a 186-acre (0.75 km2) golf course and 164 acres (0.66 km2) of surrounding woodland.
Brodribb’s interest in archaeology and cricket never dimmed and he continued to encourage children in these interests. He joined forces with Dave PERKINS and helped form the EWHURST UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB in the late 1970s.
He died on 7 October 1999.
Sources: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Brodribb
Wisden Almanack – Obituaries 1999
The Society of Antiquaries of London, Obituary Archive