Roll of Honour

In memory of the members of Linton Park Cricket Club who gave their lives in the Second World War.

Our story The Founders

1939 — 1945

The four members of the club who gave their lives for us in the Second World War.

S. Pierce

Lieutenant Stan Pierce — British Reconnaissance Regiment; died on service in Italy

J. Short

Sergeant J. Short — air gunner, Royal Air Force

T. J. Smith

Sergeant T. J. Smith — observer, Royal Air Force

J. Wenham

Sergeant J. Wenham — flight engineer, Royal Air Force

May they rest in peace

Remembered

At the club’s first post-war meeting — its first Annual General Meeting since November 1938, held in February 1946 — tribute was paid to the four members who had been killed. Three of them still stand in our own scorebook: Stan Pierce played through 1939–41, J. Short a single full summer in 1940, and J. Wenham in 1940–41, each taking his last innings for the club before he went to war. Their names are read from the four corner portraits of the memorial photograph.

The artefact

Their memorial, framed in the pavilion, is not a plaque but a photograph — a record of a match played at Linton Park on 4 August 1941, in the middle of the war, placed there to commemorate the four. The portraits of the fallen sit in its four corners, watching over the company they once played among.

The 1939 to 1945 Roll of Honour: a photograph of a cricket match played at Linton Park on 4 August 1941, placed to commemorate the four club members who gave their lives in the Second World War, with their portraits — S. Pierce, T. J. Smith, J. Wenham and J. Short — in the four corners. — The memorial as it hangs in the pavilion. From the club archive.

The match of 4 August 1941

That wartime afternoon drew a remarkable company to Linton Park, the club’s own men alongside several of the great figures of Kent cricket — among them the county and England names A. P. “Tich” Freeman and W. H. V. “Hopper” Levett, and O. Hambro, of the family then living in the great house. The full company named beneath the photograph:

W. Bunting, P. Brattle, P. R. Sunnucks, H. Rayner, R. M. Harris, F. Taylor, G. Beslee, W. Hickmott, J. Wenham, J. Short, C. G. Larking, S. Pierce, D. Hartridge, C. Fenner, W. Robins, W. Murray-Wood, H. W. Weedon, E. Humphreys, W. H. V. Levett, F. E. Weedon, N. Boucher, J. Wenham, O. J. Pierce, E. Cheeseman, F. R. Sutton, O. Hambro, T. A. Crawford, G. D. Fenner, A. G. Buckoke, A. P. Freeman, C. Lewis, H. J. Hubble, G. H. Fenner, J. Jameson.

The Linton Park Cricket Club side of August 1941, captained by F. Sutton, with three of the four fallen among the players. — The Linton Park side of August 1941, captained by F. Sutton — three of the four fallen among them: S. Pierce, J. Short and J. Wenham. From the club archive.

Transcribed from the memorial photograph in the pavilion; ranks and services from the club’s 1946 minutes. Historical detail from the Loose Area History Society — Loose Threads Nos. 12 & 14, with thanks to Derek Pantony. If any name here is misread, please tell us so we can put it right.