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Alexander Cowie

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This article is about the English cricketer. For the British squash and tennis player, see Alex Cowie. For the Scottish football player, see George Cowie.

Alexander Cowie
Personal information
Full name
Alexander Gordon Cowie
Born(1889-02-27)27 February 1889
Hordle, Hampshire, England
Died7 April 1916(1916-04-07) (aged 27)
Amarah, Mesopotamia
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm fast
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1910–1911Cambridge University
1910Hampshire
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 14
Runs scored 98
Batting average 7.00
100s/50s –/–
Top score 28
Balls bowled 1,979
Wickets 58
Bowling average 24.05
5 wickets in innings 5
10 wickets in match –
Best bowling 6/87
Catches/stumpings 6/–
Source: Cricinfo, 1 January 2010

Alexander Gordon Cowie (27 February 1889 – 7 April 1916) was an English first-class cricketer, British Army officer, and a noted war poet during the First World War.

Life, cricket and war service

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The son of the soldier Alexander Hugh Cowie, he was born in February 1889 at Yeatton House in Hordle, Hampshire.[1] Cowie was educated at Charterhouse School,[2] before matriculating to Caius College, Cambridge.[1] He made his debut in first-class cricket for Cambridge University against Surrey at Fenner's. He featured six times for Cambridge in 1910, including in The University Match against Oxford at Lord's. In that same season, he also played for a combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities team against a combined Army and Navy team at Aldershot, in addition to making two appearances for Hampshire in the County Championship;[3] in his second match for Hampshire against Lancashire, he took 5 for 94 in Lancashire's first innings. The following season, he made a further three appearances for Cambridge, but did not appear in The University Match.[3] In nine first-class matches for Cambridge, he took 43 wickets at an average of 23.25; he took four five wicket hauls, with best figures of 6 for 87.[4] Randolph Hodgson operating under the pen-name 'A County Vicar' described him as an "intimidating" bowler,[5] with Wisden noting he was "somewhat erratic".[6]

Having been commissioned into the Royal Engineers Militia in December 1907,[7] Cowie was promoted to lieutenant with the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers in January 1911,[8] after which he was commissioned into the regular army with the Seaforth Highlanders in December 1911.[9] Cowie later made two further appearances in first-class cricket for the British Army cricket team, against the Royal Navy in 1913 and Cambridge University in 1914.[3] He served in the First World War with the Seaforth Highlanders, gaining the temporary rank of captain in June 1915 and the full rank in October of the same year.[10][11] Cowie was wounded in action in 1915, but returned to service in the Mesopotamian campaign, but later died in April 1916 from wounds sustained near Amarah. He was subsequently buried at the Amara War Cemetery.[1] A short poem of his, titled "Lines by Captain Alexander Gordon Cowie, Seaforth Highlanders", appeared after his death in The Lotus Magazine,[12] and has since been anthologized in books of war poetry.[13] As a 22-year-old, he was described as "a writer of poems of great beauty".[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b c McCrery, Nigel (2017). Final Wicket: Test and First Class Cricketers Killed in the Great War. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Books. p. 193. ISBN 9781473827141.
  2. ^ Girdlestone, Frederick Kennedy Wilson; Hardman, Edward Trevor; Tod, Alexander Hay (1911). Charterhouse Register, 1872-1910. Chiswick Press. p. 705.
  3. ^ a b c "First-Class Matches played by Alexander Cowie". CricketArchive. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  4. ^ "First-Class Bowling For Each Team by Alexander Cowie". CricketArchive. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  5. ^ A Country Vicar (21 August 1937). "An Alarmingly Fast Bowler". The Cricketer. Vol. 18, no. 17. London. ISSN 1740-9519. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  6. ^ Renshaw, Andrew (2014). Wisden on the Great War: The Lives of Cricket's Fallen 1914-1918. London: A & C Black. pp. 216–17. ISBN 9781408832356.
  7. ^ "No. 28094". The London Gazette. 31 December 1907. p. 9105.
  8. ^ "No. 28507". The London Gazette. 23 June 1911. p. 4708.
  9. ^ "No. 28558". The London Gazette. 8 December 1911. p. 9264.
  10. ^ "No. 29245". The London Gazette. 27 July 1915. p. 7446.
  11. ^ "No. 29439". The London Gazette. 14 January 1916. p. 631.
  12. ^ Cowie, Alexander Gordon (1916). "Lines by Captain Alexander Gordon Cowie, Seaforth Highlanders (Died of Wounds)". The Lotus Magazine. 8 (2): 92. JSTOR 20543786.
  13. ^ "First World War Centenary Poetry Collection". www.librivox.org. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  14. ^ George Dawes Hicks; Lawrence Pearsall Jacks (1918). "War Poets". The Hibbert Journal. 16: 407. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
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