{{short description|English cricketer and civil servant}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}} {{Use British English|date=February 2016}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Geoffrey Anson | country = England | fullname = Geoffrey Frank Anson | birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|10|8|df=yes}} | birth_place = Sevenoaks, Kent, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1977|12|4|1922|10|8|df=yes}} | death_place = Hastings, Sussex, England | batting = Right-handed | role = Batsman | club1 = Cambridge University | year1 = 1947 | club2 = Kent | year2 = 1947 | type1 = FC | debutdate1 = 10 May | debutyear1 = 1947 | debutfor1 = Cambridge University | debutagainst1 = Essex | lastdate1 = 23 August | lastyear1 = 1947 | lastfor1 = Kent | lastagainst1 = Somerset | hidedeliveries = true | columns = 1 | column1 = First-class | matches1 = 10 | runs1 = 460 | bat avg1 = 25.55 | 100s/50s1 = 1/2 | top score1 = 106 | catches/stumpings1 = 6/0 | date = 19 March | year = 2017 | source = https://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/8748.html CricInfo }}
'''Geoffrey Frank Anson''' (8 October 1922 – 4 December 1977) was an English cricketer and civil servant.<ref name=ci>[https://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/8748.html Geoffrey Anson], CricInfo. Retrieved 2018-09-16.</ref> A right-handed batsman, he played ten first-class cricket matches during the 1947 English cricket season for Cambridge University and Kent County Cricket Club.<ref name=ca>[https://cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/27/27490/27490.html Geoffrey Anson], CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-09-16. {{subscription required}}</ref> He also played cricket for a team of Europeans in Nigeria whilst serving in the British Colonial Service.
==Early life and war service== Anson was born at Sevenoaks in Kent in 1922 and educated at Harrow School, where he played cricket and captained the team during his final season in 1941.<ref name=psc41>Cartwright GHM Lt-Col [https://schoolscricketonline.co.uk/docs/1941.pdf The Public Schools, 1941], in ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', pp.239-247. Retrieved 2018-09-16. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20180916235438/https://schoolscricketonline.co.uk/docs/1941.pdf Archived version]. Archived 2018-09-16.)</ref> ''Wisden'' considered that he might have been the "best schoolboy batsman of the year" and described him as being a "daring stroke player".<ref name=psc41p243>Cartwright, p.243.</ref> He initially went up to the University of Cambridge in 1941 and played cricket for the university team during the summer of 1942,<ref name=camisc>[https://cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/27/27490/Miscellaneous_Matches.html Miscellaneous matches played by Geoffrey Anson], CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-09-16. {{subscription required}}</ref> before serving in the armed forces during World War II. He was commissioned in the Coldstream Guards as a 2nd Lieutenant in April 1943<ref name=gaz43>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36010/supplement/2109/data.pdf Supplement to the London Gazette, 11 May 1943], p.2109. Retrieved 2018-09-16.</ref> and served in the 4th Battalion, part of the Guards Armoured Division.<ref name=officers>[https://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_A06.html Anson, Geoffrey Frank], British Army Officers, 1939-1945. Retrieved 2018-09-16.</ref> He was awarded the Military Cross in May 1945 whilst serving as a Lieutenant.<ref name=gaz>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37091/supplement/2648/data.pdf Supplement to the London Gazette, 24 May 1945], p.2648. Retrieved 2018-09-16.</ref> Anson was serving as a tank commander during Operation Veritable, an offensive along the Siegfried Line on the Dutch-German border near Nijmegen in February. He had dismounted to organise mine clearance parties to allow the capture of Frasselt by the 9th Cameronians.<ref name=cg>Paget J (ed) (2000) [https://archive.org/stream/TheColdstreamGuards1650-2000/The%20Coldstream%20Guards_djvu.txt The Reichswald and Rhineland: Operation VERITABLE, February-March 1945. 4th (Tank) and 5th Battalions], in ''The Coldstream Guards'', 1650–2000, p.138. Lee Cooper: Barnsley.</ref>
==Cricket and later life== He went back to Cambridge in 1946 before leaving to join the Colonial Service the following summer.<ref name=morgan>Morgan R (2016) 'West Africa goes multiracial' in ''Real International Cricket: A History in One Hundred Scorecards''. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=mNt5DAAAQBAJ&dq=geoffrey+anson+nigeria&pg=PT116 Available online]. Retrieved 2018-09-16.)</ref><ref name=wis79>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/228566.html Anson, Geoffrey Frank, MC], Obituaries before 1978, ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1979. Retrieved 2018-09-16.</ref> Anson made his first-class cricket debut for the university against Essex in May 1947<ref name=ca /> and was set to win a Blue before "the claims of the Colonial Service forced him to withdraw from the team and he was unable to play in the University match".<ref name=wis79 /> Later in the year he played seven County Championship matches for Kent, his last first-class match coming against Somerset in August.<ref name=ca />
Anson worked in the Colonial Service and played a number of matches for Nigeria Europeans against Gold Coast Europeans between 1949 and 1956.<ref name=camisc /><ref name=morgan /> He later played for the Kent Second XI between 1957 and 1959<ref name=ca /> and worked as an area manager for the Ford Motor Credit Company based in London.<ref name=officers /> He died at Hastings in 1977 aged 55.<ref name=ci />
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{cricinfo|id=8748}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anson, Geoffrey}} Category:1922 births Category:1977 deaths Category:Military personnel from Kent Category:Cricketers from Sevenoaks Category:English cricketers Category:Kent cricketers Category:Cambridge University cricketers Category:People educated at Harrow School Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:Coldstream Guards officers Category:Recipients of the Military Cross Category:20th-century English sportsmen