Today the Ageas Bowl and Hampshire Cricket are supporting the Royal British Legion’s Thank You campaign

Hampshire Cricket and the Ageas Bowl have partnered up with the Royal British Legion this year to help raise awareness for the #ThankYou100 initiative, which is a nationwide movement aiming to encourage the public to say ‘Thank You’ and commemorate the generation who served throughout the Great War a century ago over 100 days prior to 11th November.

The Royal British Legion have already had presence at the Ageas Bowl earlier this month during the host’s Specsavers County Championship match against Nottinghamshire, which highlighted Hampshire’s rich heritage of past players who not only went to fight in WW1, but also those who had a large impact in the rebuilding of the game after the war.

No less than 23 Hampshire Cricketers lost their lives during the First World War, more than any other first-class county

The Ageas Bowl welcome the Royal British Legion again today - this will see a group of military personnel, veterans and RBL staff join together to unveil their giant flag on the pitch before the game as well as performing a guard of honour for the players as they arrive onto the pitch for the first session of the match.The Royal British Legion will have a small stand set up on the West Atrium Concourse next to the Ticket Office with collection buckets available to donation to their cause.

 To go alongside this, Hampshire Cricket has done a great deal of research into cricketers of the past who served in the Great War. There are a number of cricketers’ with an interesting history and these include:  

MAJOR THE HON LIONEL TENNYSON

He attended Eton, and briefly Cambridge University and in 1913, he scored a century for MCC on first-class debut, and soon after, one for Hampshire in his second match for them. After this first successful season, he played in five winter Test Matches in South Africa and was one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year, but by the time the 1914 season ended he was already with his Regiment, the Rifle Brigade, in France. He served through most of the campaign, but was sent home with injuries three times, returning twice to the Front.

After the War, he captained Hampshire until 1934, and led England v Australia in 1921, arresting a string of defeats. In 1922, his Hampshire side beat Warwickshire, after being dismissed for 15 and following-on, and he led tours to India, South Africa and West Indies. He was the grandson of the Victorian poet, and succeeded to the title as Lord Tennyson in 1928. He was appointed Honorary Colonel of a Territorial Army unit in 1931, a position he held through the Second World War. He published two autobiographies, in 1933 and 1950.