WALTER HAMMOND.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 336, 18 January 1937, Page 2

WALTER HAMMOND.

School Career of England’s

Batsman.

Walter Hammond’s name is almost everywhere in the cricket record books. . . . There are plenty who can make a recitation of his many great achievements, but what is not so w°ll known is that his father was a soldier, and that Wally spent his early years in India and China. One of the proudest schools in England is Cirencester, where be was educated, but how many remember that after he made his debut for his country, playing four innings as an amateur, Kent objected to his qualification? ... It was in 1920 that Hammond started cricket in a big way, but three more seasons passed before he found real prominence . . . His highest score was 336 not out against New Zealand, and he was born at Dover on June 19, 1903. Here is a very interesting note' from Mr M. J. O’Donnell, who is at-I tached to a London County Council school at Deptford. "I have read with interest reference to Walter Hammond’s early days. While serving as an army schoolmaster at Malta between 1910 and 1916 I taught young Walter at Fort Tigne Garrison school. His father was attending- class at the same time, working for his first-class certificate of education. “I remember that in due course Sergeant Hammond proceeded to France, leaving Mrs Hammond and his son at Fort Tigne. Shortly afterwards W’alter was left fatherless. It had been said he laid the foundation of his cricket on the barrack square at Fort Tigne. He was very fond of games, and his father, a very tall and thin man, was a useful partner at the net on the tennis courts.