Lionel Collins

Brigadier Lionel Peter Collins CB CSI DSO OBE
As commandant of the Indian Military College, 1935
Born	27 November 1878 Reading, Berkshire, England
Died	28 September 1957(1957-09-28) (aged 78) Fleet, Hampshire, England
Family	Sidney Olivier (brother-in-law) Louis Hunt (son-in-law)
Military career
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service / branch	British Army
Years of service	1900–1936
Commands	Indian MIlitary College
Wars	First World War Battle of Neuve Chapelle\ Third Anglo-Afghan War
Cricket information
Batting	Right-handed
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1897–1913	Berkshire
1899	Oxford University
1907–1910	Marylebone Cricket Club
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 19 Runs scored 858 Batting average 26.81 100s/50s 1/3 Top score 102* Catches/stumpings 5/–
Source: Cricinfo, 13 January 2019

Brigadier Lionel Peter Collins, CB CSI DSO OBE (27 November 1878 – 28 September 1957) was an English cricketer and British Indian Army officer.

Born in Reading, Collins was educated at Marlborough College, a public school in Wiltshire, and first played minor counties cricket for his native Berkshire in 1897. He went up to Keble College, Oxford, in 1898, where he made first-class debut in 1899 for Oxford University Cricket Club. He joined the British Army upon leaving Oxford in 1900 and spent most of his early career serving in British India. In 1904, playing for a Gurkha Brigade team, he made two centuries in the same match, and repeated this achievement twice in the span of ten days: a feat described by Wisden as "quite without parallel in the history of the game".^[1]

Collins made his final first-class appearances before the First World War, playing for the Marylebone Cricket Club, for the Army and Navy, and for the Free Foresters. During the war, he served with the Gurkhas on the Western Front and received the Distinguished Service Order in 1915 for actions during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. He later returned to India and was mentioned in dispatches for service in Baluchistan during 1918. Collins was with British forces during the Third Anglo-Afghan War of 1919 and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his actions. From 1932 to 1936 he was the first commandant of the Indian Military College at Dehra Dun.

Collins was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1934, and also made aide-de-camp to King George V. He retired from the army in October 1936 and died at Fleet, Hampshire, on 28 September 1957.