Cricket in World War I The onset of World War I in 1914 brought an end to the " Golden Age " of English cricket . Surrey called off their last two matches without forfeiting their position at the top of the County Championship , which they thus won for the first time since 1899 , and the County Championship was then suspended until the 1919 season . In Australia , the Sheffield Shield was contested in 1914 – 15 despite the ongoing war , but was then suspended until the 1919 – 20 season . No first - class cricket was played in South Africa from the close of the 1913 – 14 season until a series of matches against the Australian Imperial Forces cricket team in late 1919 . At least 210 first - class cricketers are known to have joined the armed forces , of whom 34 were killed . The obituary sections of Wisden between 1915 and 1919 contained the names of hundreds of players and officials of all standards who died in the service of their country . Abandonment of first - class cricket . With war looming in August , cricketers with military commitments , such as Sir Archibald White , the Yorkshire skipper , left their teams to do their duty , and Pelham Warner and Arthur Carr , who captained Middlesex and Nottinghamshire respectively , followed when war was declared . The County Championship was not immediately abandoned , the MCC issuing a statement that " no good purpose can be saved at the moment by canceling matches " on 6 August , but attendances plummeted . Jack Hobbs , who had scored a career best 226 in front of over 14 , 000 spectators on 3 August , had to rearrange his benefit match from the Oval , after it was requisitioned by the Army , to Lord ' s and on 13 August the MCC announced that all matches arranged at Lord ' s to September would be postponed . News of casualties suffered by the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium was already turning the public mood against ' business as usual ' and on 27 August a letter written by W . G . Grace was published in " The Sportsman " in which he declared that " I think the time has arrived when the county cricket season should be closed , for it is not fitting at a time like this that able - bodied men should be playing cricket by day and pleasure - seekers look on . I should like to see all first - class cricketers of suitable age set a good example and come to the help of their country without delay in its hour of need . " The remaining matches in the Championship were abandoned " in deference to public opinion " while the MCC closed the Scarborough Festival as " the continuation of first - class cricket is hurtful to the feelings of a section of the public " . The last match to be completed , on 2 September , pitted Sussex against Yorkshire at Hove . " The men ' s hearts were barely in the game , " the periodical " Cricket " reported at the time , " and the match was given up as a draw at tea . " The final match played , twenty five years and a day later , before the outbreak of World War II saw the same sides facing each other on the same ground . W . G . Grace , who had called for the early abandonment of cricket in his letter to " The Sportsman " , was reputed to shake his fist at the Zeppelins floating over his South London home . When chided by a friend who pointed out that the fast bowling of Ernie Jones hadn ' t discomforted him half so much , Grace replied testily ' But I could SEE him ! ' Grace had played his second - last match , at the age of 66 , for Eltham against Grove Park on 25 July 1914 , scoring an unbeaten 69 out of 155 for six declared He died of a stroke on 23 October 1915 . Cricket continues . While first - class cricket had been cancelled in the major cricketing nations , cricket itself continued around the world . In England , the Oval and Lord ' s hosted a number of matches between representative services sides , Army regiments and other service units . Club cricket continued , especially in the north of England , where the Lancashire League played in each summer without a break . Geese were kept on the grass at Lord ' s while the pavilion at Old Trafford was transformed into a Red Cross hospital . In four years , 1 , 800 patients were treated there , with beds occupying every possible space , including corridors and stairway landings . Anzac soldiers played improvised games cricket under shellfire on Shell Green in Gallipoli in 1915 . The Australians played a game in view of the Turks to give the impression of normality and confidence while the entire force was being secretly evacuated from the beach area . Robert Graves recounts a game between officers and sergeants at Vermelles in France in 1915 , when a bird cage with a dead parrot inside was used as the wicket . The game was abandoned when German machine gun fire at an aeroplane caused falling bullets to land dangerously close to the pitch . Cricket was played overseas , often in fund raising matches . A game involving an English XII against an Indian team held at the Bombay Gymkhana in December 1915 for war relief was watched by 40 , 000 people . J . G . Greig scored 216 and Frank Tarrant took 9 for 35 . The only first - class cricketer to be awarded the Victoria Cross was John Smyth , for conspicuous gallantry with the 15th Ludhiana Sikhs in India in 1915 . He also received the Military Cross and was decorated by the Russians . He played his 2 matches for the Europeans at Lahore , making 3 and 19 in the first and taking a wicket while posting 51 and 27 in the second . He was invalided out the army in the Second World War and became a Conservative MP , being created a Baronet in 1955 and a Privy Counsellor in 1962 . Cricket raised funds in other ways . George Robey , the " Prime Minister of Mirth " , auctioned cricket memorabilia , including bats used by W . G . Grace , to raise funds for St . Dunstan ' s Hostel for Blind Servicemen . Some cricket was still played in England , with the Australian Imperial Forces , featuring Charlie Macartney , playing an English Army XI at Lord ' s in July 1917 . Lord ' s was also the scene for a baseball match between American and Canadian teams watched by 10 , 000 with the proceeds going to the Canadian Widows and Orphans Fund . Club cricket continued to the extent that it could , with large crowds attending the matches . Lord Harris , captain of England in the first English Test natch in 1880 , took part in a match at Lord ' s in 1918 between Plum Warner ' s XI and the Public Schools . His Lordship , aged 67 , scored 11 before being run out . With the war drawing to a close King George V watched England play the Dominions at Lord ' s in 1918 . The Dominions opened their batting with South African Herbie Taylor and Australian Charlie Macartney . " Doing their bit " . 210 first - class cricketers enlisted in the armed services , and others undertook war related work in support of the war effort . Taking Surrey as an example , Ernie Hayes , Bill Hitch and Andy Sandham joined the Sportsman ' s Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers while fast bowler Neville Knox became a private in the Public Schools Battalion . Herbert Strudwick , the Surrey wicket - keeper , worked in a South London munitions plant alongside team mate Razor Smith . Other cricketers helped in the recruitment drive , with Gilbert Jessop , promoted to the rank of Captain in the 14th Service Battalion , Manchester Regiment , making speeches encouraging men to join up . John Philip Wilson . Jack Wilson played 9 matches for Yorkshire County Cricket Club , and a couple for HDG Leveson - Gower ' s XI in 1912 and 1913 . He then turned his hand to flying , gaining his pilot ' s license on a Vickers biplane at Brooklands in June 1914 . He was commissioned into the Royal Naval Air Service when war broke out and flew missions throughout the war . In April 1915 he and another officer ' observed two submarines lying alongside the Mole at Zeebrugge ' and ' attacked them , dropping four bombs , it was believed with successful results . ' On 7 June the same year the Admiralty reported that ' this morning at 2 . 30 am , an attack was made on the airship shed at Evere , north of Brussels , by Flight - Lieutenants J . P . Wilson RN and J . S . Mills RN . Bombs were dropped and the shed was observed to be in flames . It is not known whether a zeppelin was inside , but the flames reached a great height , coming out from both three sides of the shed . Both pilots returned safely . ' A few days later , on 21 June , the Admiralty announced that HM King had been graciously pleased to award the Distinguished Service Cross to both Wilson and Mills ' for their services on 7 June 1915 , when after a long flight in darkness over hostile territory , they threw bombs on the zeppelin shed at Evere near Brussels , and destroyed a zeppelin which was inside . The two officers were exposed to heavy anti - aircraft fire during the attack ' ( London Gazette 21 June 1915 ) . At the Yorkshire AGM in 1916 , Lord Hawke said of Wilson , " May he continue his splendid work , and be with us when we again resume hostilities on the cricket field : " In the county yearbook for that year there is a photograph of him dressed in naval uniform . He was also awarded the Belgian Order of the Crown ( LG 29 Aug 1917 ) , and in the New Year ' s Honours for 1919 he was awarded the AFC , " in recognition of distinguished service " ( LG 1 Jan 1919 ) . In a conflict when the average survival time for R . F . C . pilots could be counted in hours , Wilson was promoted to Major , survived the war and died on 3 October 1959 in Tickton , Beverley , Yorkshire . His other claims to fame include winning the Grand National on ' Double Chance ' in 1925 . Cricket in war art . Cricket was used as a theme in cartoons highlighting the " Hun ' s unsportsmanlike attitude to war " . J . H . Dowd ' s " The Kaiser ' s Cricket " depicted a spike - helmeted German soldier playing cricket in a most underhand way . He is shown catching a ball in the field with a net , hitting an umpire with a bat , batting with a net in front of his stumps , pushing a batsman out of his crease before stumping him and bowling a ball from the middle of the pitch . C . M . Padday ' s painting of Royal Navy sailors playing cricket on deck " somewhere in the tropics " shows a ball made of twine attached to wickets made of buckets for easy retrieval when it was hit over the side . A " Punch " cartoon depicted the Germans in more lighthearted manner in a cartoon which showed a German plane flying over a cricket match . The game continues , even as the plane drops its bombs , with the fielders chasing a ball to the boundary . The caption , playing on the German misunderstanding of cricket , shows the German airman ' s report as saying " We dropped bombs on a British formation , causing the troops to disperse and run about in a panic stricken manner " . The fear of poison gas attacks spreading to England saw the British Government warn citizens to take their gas mask s everywhere in 1916 , just in case . Essex cricketer and journalist Edward Sewell was photographed in full cricket gear wearing his mask . Grenades and bowling techniques . British and Empire soldiers were instructed to throw the Mills bomb , a hand - held fragmentation grenade using a technique similar to that of bowling a cricket ball . Training classes were given on how to best do this . A cartoon satirising this was published by Geoffrey Stobie in 1918 . The image has two panes ; in the left pane , a cricketer is about to deliver the ball , his left arm out in front of him and his right vertically down behind his back holding the ball . In the right pane , this position is mirrored by a soldier , but rather than a cricket ball , he is holding a grenade in his right hand . The No . 15 Ball grenade was referred to as the ' cricket ball ' grenade . It was ignited by striking the grenade like a match before throwing it at the enemy . It proved unreliable , as it was susceptible to the damp , and was withdrawn after the Battle of Loos . Casualties . Other cricketers were seriously wounded in the fighting , which in many cases had a serious effect on their cricketing careers . A changed game . The County Championship resumed in England in 1919 , with the counties agreeing to a brief and unsuccessful experiment with two - day county matches . It was not only the playing ranks which had been thinned by four years of slaughter . Worcestershire County Cricket Club mounted a roll of honour , in the form of a wooden plaque , in the pavilion at New Road to list and remember the 17 members of the club who died in the Great War . It remains there to this day .