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Hon (later Lord) Lionel Hallem TENNYSON

Lionel Tennyson, the grandson of Queen Victoria’s Poet Laureate is the only Hampshire batsman to have scored a century on first-class debut although it was for the MCC, not the county. He had learned his cricket in Australia where his father was Governor General and then at Eton and Cambridge University before, in 1909, he took a commission in the Coldstream Guards.

This was in 1913 and, shortly afterwards, he made his Hampshire debut, qualifying immediately through the family’s Isle of Wight home. He added two further centuries and earned himself nomination as one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year and a winter trip to South Africa and five Test matches (although with just one half-century and an average below twenty he was less successful). He played very little in 1914 and then went off to war where he performed heroically and was wounded three times.

He returned in 1919 to take up the captaincy of Hampshire’s strongest side to that date – and for some years after that – and mostly led his generation of great professionals with understanding. Five times in the first eight seasons they finished in the top third and while they were never close to the title they played some thrilling all-round cricket, not least when Tennyson led them to that famous victory at Edgbaston in 1922, having followed-on after the first innings debacle of 15 all out.

In the previous year Tennyson had his one chance of captaining his country, taking over in the Third Test after two resounding victories by Australia. He could not prevent a third win but scored an heroic undefeated half century batting one-handed after a fielding injury and in the next two Tests, England recovered to hold their own in drawn matches. Tennyson averaged 57.25 against Gregory Macdonald, Mailey and the others but never played for England again. He did, however, make a number of overseas tours, principally with the MCC and often as captain. His highest score, 217, came against the West Indians at the County Ground in 1928.

He could bowl fast but was not always inclined to do so. He scored over 12,000 runs for the county, captained them from 1919-1933 and played for a couple more years into his mid-forties. In the winter of 1937/8 he ended his first-class career in India with the last of his 19 first-class centuries.

Lionel Tennyson was a man for the big occasion, the grand gesture - it was often said of him that he was really a man of earlier times. He died in bed in June 1951, reading The Times, smoking a cigar and probably cursing post-war Welfare State Britain or perhaps his bad luck that day with the bookies.