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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Attwood Alfred Torrens | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 13 February 1874 Hayes, Kent, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 8 December 1916 (aged 42) Pozières, Somme, France | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm medium-pace | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relations | Alfred Torrens (father) William Torrens (brother) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive, 23 October 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Major Attwood Alfred Torrens (13 February 1874 – 8 December 1916) was an English cricketer and army officer.
Attwood Torrens was educated at Harrow School before going to work at the stock exchange.[1] He had played only school and club cricket when he was selected to tour New Zealand in 1906-07 with an MCC team of amateur cricketers.
A lower-order batsman and medium-paced bowler, he made his first-class debut in the tour match against Wellington on Christmas Day 1906.[2] His form was modest until late in the tour, when in the two-day match against a Wairarapa XV he took 11 wickets.[3] In the next first-class match, against Hawke's Bay, he made the top score of the match with 87 and took 3 for 44 and 2 for 28.[4] He was selected to play in the two matches against New Zealand that followed immediately, but was not successful.[5]
After the tour Torrens continued to play club cricket in England, including two first-class matches for MCC and one for the Free Foresters. He never played county cricket.
Torrens was commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1915 and left for the front in May 1916. By December 1916 he was Major commanding D Battery of 307th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. He was killed by a shell fragment at Pozières on 8 December 1916 while running across open ground in an attempt to move his men to safety.[1][6] He is buried in the Pozières British Cemetery.[7][8]
- ^ a b Nigel McCrery, Final Wicket: Test and First Class Cricketers Killed in the Great War, Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley, 2015. pp. 293–94.
- ^ "Wellington v MCC 1906-07". CricketArchive. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
- ^ "Wairarapa v MCC 1906-07". CricketArchive. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
- ^ "Hawke's Bay v MCC 1906-07". CricketArchive. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
- ^ Don Neely & Richard Payne, Men in White: The History of New Zealand International Cricket, 1894–1985, Moa, Auckland, 1986, pp. 48–50.
- ^ 307 South Midland Bde War Diary 1 September 1915–31 December 1916, The National Archives, Kew, file WO 95/3043/1.
- ^ "Maj Attwood A Torrens". findagrave.com. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
- ^ Torrens at Commonwealth War Grave Commission records.