Adrian Gore

Brigadier Adrian Clements Gore (14 May 1900 – 7 June 1990) was a British Army officer who served with distinction in World War II. He won fame as a schoolboy cricketer for Eton College and was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1919. Early life Gore was born at Ayr in Scotland in 1900, the only child of Army officer Robert Clements Gore, CB, CMG, and his wife Rachel Cecilia (daughter of Llewellyn Traherne Bassett Saunderson, JP and Lady Rachel Mary Scott, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Clonmell). At birth he was initially believed to have been still born and was placed to one side to be buried until a nurse noticed that the child was alive. He was a descendant of Sir William Gore, 3rd Baronet. Gore was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Gore's father served in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in the Second Boer War and in India before serving in France during World War I. He rose to the rank of Brigadier-General and was commanding the 101st Brigade in Belgium when he was killed in action in April 1918 aged 50. He is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery near Ypres. Cricket Gore was a "naturally gifted all-round sportsman" who Wisden described as having "a touch of genius". He played games such as racquets at school but played little cricket before 1918, his final year at Eton. During the 1918 season he shot to fame as a fast-medium bowler with a devastating late in-swing who demolished both adult and other schoolboy cricketers. He took 51 wickets in all that season, at an average of 7.51 runs per wicket. With no first-class cricket played in the season, Wisden picked Gore and four other public school cricketers for its annual five Cricketers of the Year feature.