Yorkshire Almanac Vanity Fair profiles Lord Hawke, amateur captain of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, and soon to be the most successful county captain ever

24 September 1892: Vanity Fair profiles Lord Hawke, amateur captain of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, and soon to be the most successful county captain ever

Detail from Leslie Ward’s caricature of Lord Hawke in the same publication (Ward 1892/09/24).

Vanity Fair. 1892/09/24. Lord Hawke. London. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Nearly a century-and-a-half ago one Edward Hawke, Rear-Admiral of the White, achieved so splendid a victory over the French that he presently got command of an expedition fitted out to act against the French coast; and having hoisted his flag aboard the Royal George, he led his fleet in pursuit of the enemy, whom he signally defeated off Bellisle, thereby making himself very memorable in our naval annals, and still more so in those of the French. He was the worthy beginning of the Barony to which Martin Bladen Hawke, seventh Baron, succeeded nearly five years ago. He was born two-and-thirty years ago, and in due course went to Eton, where he began to justify himself of his motto — (which is ‘Strike’) — better and more wholesomely than ever did labour-monger; hitting up runs at cricket with increasing vigour. He went on to Magdalene College, Cambridge, and continued to hit them up. He is now Captain of the 3rd Battalion of the Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment, as well as Captain of the Yorkshire County Cricket Eleven; for which he has done great things, being the only amateur player who has regularly captained the County Eleven; and this he has done for ten years. And though, owing to an injury to his hand, he did not accomplish much for his county last year, he yet most creditably managed a team in America in the autumn; sparing no trouble to make his own men comfortable nor to teach the Americans cricket. And he is now about to take another team to India; for he is always full of keen love for the game, and though not so sure a run-getter as are some of his fellows, yet his zeal for, and his knowledge of, it make him an excellent and popular captain.

He is a member of the Carlton and of the Bachelors’, and a good-looking, pleasant, modest fellow; and though he is not as yet a great statesman he is a good Conservative.

He is a light-hearted bachelor.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Via Derek Hodgson’s history of the club (Hodgson 1989).

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Comment

Via Derek Hodgson’s history of the club (Hodgson 1989).

Something to say? Get in touch

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Comment

Here’s Edith Piaf’s version:

Ward’s comparison with “Yankee doodle” is fascinating (can someone tell me more about musical-theatrical parody on the battlefield?!) but possibly misguided: I believe that one hypothesis is that it began its American life as a humorous British song about the shambolic colonials, who went on to own it. Whatever the case, one can imagine rehearsals of enemy music being fairly miserable affairs, rather like the production of American flags designed only for burning – the artists untouchables.

Doyle’s grandson, the poet Francis Hastings Doyle, wrote almost a century later:

For many years this tune continued to be the quick march of the 14th regiment. I understand that of late years the tradition has ceased to operate, and that the march is disused, or, at least, that its origin has been forgotten.

An excerpt from his revival verse:

Straight out in front their leader dashed
(A God-given king of men was he),
And from his bright looks on them flashed
One sparkle of heroic glee:
“They hold us cheap” (he cried) “too soon,
We’ll break them, frantic as they are,
Unto their own accursed tune;
Strike up then Ça ira.”

The drums exulting thundered forth,
Whilst yet with trumpet tones he spoke,
And in those strong sons of the North
The old Berserker laugh awoke.
Their bayonets glowed with life, their eyes
Shone out to greet that eagle glance,
And, in her rush, a strange surprise
Palsied the steps of France.

Then, like a stream that bursts its banks,
To Ça ira from fifes and drums,
Upon their crushed and shattered ranks
The cataract charge of England comes;
Whilst their own conquering music leapt
Forth in wild mirth to feel them run;
Right o’er the ridge that host was swept,
And the grim battle won.
(Doyle 1887)

I think it was this poem that gave rise to the canonical but improbable anecdote, told here by Ernest Hart:

The terrible and bloody associations of the “Ça ira” make it about the last tune that one would expect to find in the programme of a British military band. Nevertheless that tune has, for considerably more than a century, been the quick-step of what was the old 14th Regiment of Foot, now the West Yorkshire Regiment…

On May 23rd, 1793, the British forces took part in a fierce engagement at Famars, but the French held their positions with indomitable spirit, and their assailants were compelled to fall back. While the English troops were losing hope and courage, the Frenchmen were emboldened by their success, and their bands kept up the fighters’ spirits with the music of the “Ça ira.” Suddenly one of those happy inspirations which so often turn the tide of events occurred to the colonel of the 14th. Galloping up to the band, he commanded it to strike up the same revolutionary air, shouting as he galloped back to the front, “Come on, lads, and we’ll beat ’em to their own damned tune!” The band, which must have had a pretty good ear for melody and key, gave the tune with vigor, we are told, and the colonel led his regiment to an assault which resulted in the rout of the enemy.
(Hart 1918/10)

Here’s a hand-coloured version of the image, which won’t appear in the book. This is because the British Museum, probably illegally, claims copyright over photos of public domain images in its possession, charges absurd fees for even borderline commercial use, and can afford lawyers:

Source: British Museum under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0