David Deshon

David Peter Tower Deshon, (19 June 1923 – 18 January 1992), was a successful school cricketer whose later progress in first-class cricket was limited by his career as a full-time officer in the Royal Artillery. He was born at Marylebone, London and died suddenly of a heart attack at Heathrow Airport.^[1]

Cricket career

Deshon was a successful schoolboy cricketer at Sherborne School and was selected for the annual MCC schools cricket festival in 1941, where he scored a century and outshone Trevor Bailey in a big partnership.^[1] He was a middle-order right-handed batsman.

As an officer in the regular army, his first-class cricket was very restricted. He made four appearances for Somerset, three of them in 1947 and a final one in 1953. His final match was Bertie Buse's infamous benefit match at Bath against Lancashire in 1953, when the entire match was completed in a single day; Deshon's contribution to the debacle were innings of 0 and 9.^[2] In all, he scored 82 first-class runs at an average of 11.71, with a highest score of 21. He appeared in non-first-class inter-services cricket, as well as playing for the Royal Artillery.^[3]

Military career

On leaving school, Deshon was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 24 October 1942.^[4] After the Second World War ended, he remained within the Army and was promoted to Lieutenant (1946), Captain (1950) and Major (1957).^[5][6][7] He retired from the Royal Artillery with the rank of major in 1958.^[8]

References