{{short description|English cricketer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}} {{Use British English|date=April 2011}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Herbert Hake | image = | country = England | fullname = Herbert Denys Hake | nickname = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1894|11|8|df=yes}} | birth_place = Christchurch, Hampshire, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1975|4|17|1894|11|8|df=yes}} | death_place = Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | heightft = | heightinch = | batting = Right-handed | bowling = Unknown | family = Stanley Toyne (uncle) | club1 = Cambridge University | year1 = {{nowrap|1920–1921}} | club2 = Hampshire | year2 = {{nowrap|1920–1925}} | columns = 1 | column1 = First-class | matches1 = 26 | runs1 = 557 | bat avg1 = 15.91 | 100s/50s1 = –/3 | top score1 = 94 | deliveries1 = 18 | wickets1 = 0 | bowl avg1 = – | fivefor1 = – | tenfor1 = – | best bowling1 = – | catches/stumpings1 = 6/1 | date = 12 January | year = 2010 | source = http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/13996.html Cricinfo }}
'''Herbert Denys Hake''' {{postnominal|OBE}} (8 November 1894 — 12 April 1975) was an English first-class cricketer and schoolmaster. Hake served in the First World War with the Royal Hampshire Regiment, after which he played first-class cricket for Cambridge University and Hampshire. As an educator, he taught firstly at Haileybury, before emigrating to Australia to become headmaster at The King's School. In the 1950s, he was Chairman of Conference of the Headmasters' Conference of the Independent Schools of Australia.
==Early life and first-class cricket== The son of Edwin Denys Hake and his wife, Marianne, he was born in November 1894 at Christchurch, Hampshire.<ref name="BIO">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gatacre-galfry-george-12526 |title=Australian Dictionary of Biography|first=Michael D. De B. Collins|last=Persse|publisher=Australian Dictionary of Biography|location=Carlton, Victoria|chapter=Biography: Hake, Herbert Denys (1894–1975)|volume=14|year=1996|access-date=14 September 2023}}</ref> He was educated at Haileybury, where he excelled at sports; he played for the college cricket team (captaining it in his last three years)<ref name="OBIT">{{cite web|url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/230191.html|title=Wisden – Obituaries in 1975|date=19 December 2005 |publisher=ESPNcricinfo|accessdate=14 September 2023}}</ref> and partook in athletics, rackets and Eton fives. In his final year, he was also head boy of the college.<ref name="BIO"/> Hake served in the British Army during the First World War, being commissioned into the Royal Hampshire Regiment as a second lieutenant in October 1914.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28968|date=6 November 1914|page=9123|supp=y}}</ref> In December 1914, he was made a temporary lieutenant,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29011|date=18 December 1914|page=10826}}</ref> later being made a temporary captain in April 1916;<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29710|date=15 August 1916|page=8119|supp=y}}</ref> he relinquished his temporary commissions in April 1917.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30019|date=13 April 1917|page=3565|supp=y}}</ref> He served during the war with the 2nd Battalion in British India and in the Mesopotamian campaign.<ref name="BIO"/>
Following the war, he began studying history at Queens' College, Cambridge.<ref name="BIO"/> While studying at Cambridge, he was a member of the Cambridge University Cricket Club, for whom he made his debut in first-class cricket for against P. F. Warner's XI at Fenner's in 1920. In that same season, he made four appearances for Hampshire in the County Championship.<ref name="FCM">{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6634/First-Class_Matches.html|title=First-Class Matches played by Herbert Hake|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=14 September 2023|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In 1921, he played four further first-class matches for Cambridge, bringing his final tally of appearances for the university to five.<ref name="FCM"/> His appearances for Cambridge were limited by the strong nature of their batting line-up, thus he never gained his cricket blue.<ref name="BIO"/> In addition to playing cricket for Cambridge, Hake also played field hockey and rackets, for which he gained a blue and half-blue respectively.<ref name="BIO"/> Following his graduation from Cambridge in 1921, he began teaching at Haileybury.<ref name="BIO"/> When the summer holidays allowed, Hake continued to play first-class cricket for Hampshire until 1925, making a further seventeen appearances for the county.<ref name="FCM"/> In 21 first-class matches for Hampshire, he scored 478 runs at an average of 17.30;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6634/f_Batting_by_Team.html|title=First-Class Batting and Fielding For Each Team by Herbert Hake|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=14 September 2023|url-access=subscription}}</ref> he made three half centuries, with a highest score of 94 against Leicestershire in 1921.<ref name="OBIT"/> He was described by ''Wisden'' as "a fine striker of the ball [who] could score very fast", in addition to describing him as a "beautiful field [who] could keep wicket if required".<ref name="OBIT"/>
==Teaching career and later life== Hake continued to teach at Haileybury until 1927, after which he spent a year in South Africa teaching at St John's College, before returning to Haileybury. A year after his return to England, he competed in the 1929 English Amateur Rackets Championship and was runner-up.<ref name="BIO"/> In 1938, he accepted a move to Australia to become headmaster at The King's School, Parramatta;<ref name="NEWS1">{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247344896?searchTerm=Herbert%20Denys%20Hake|title=New Head For The King's|date=2 August 1938|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=Sydney|page=1|access-date=14 September 2023|via=Trove}}</ref> prior to his move, he married Elizabeth Cecilia Barton at Clapham, Yorkshire.<ref name="BIO"/>
Hake took up the headmastership at King's in February 1939,<ref name="NEWS1"/> at a time when the school's enrolled students had fallen by nearly half in a decade under the headmastership of his predecessor, The Reverend Charles Tasman Parkinson. His reforms of the school sought to bring about liberalisation, in contrast to the procedures established by Parkinson's predecessor, The Reverend Edward Morgan Baker.<ref name="BIO"/> Although the Second World War slowed down his reforms, Hake was influential in securing a new site for the school at "Gowan Brae" in Parramatta in 1954, which allowed it to move from its original location which was deemed to be inadequate and restricted in its scope for expansion.<ref name="BIO"/> He remained as headmaster until 1964, to allow for continuity whilst the school was moved to its new location. Under his tenure, student numbers had increased by 601.<ref name="BIO"/>
Hake served as the Chairman of Conference of the Headmasters' Conference of the Independent Schools of Australia from 1952 to 1954, and was described as a commanding figure within it.<ref name="BIO"/> He was appointed a fellow of the Australian College of Educators in 1962 and was a member of the Australian Club.<ref name="BIO"/> He was appointed an OBE in the 1961 Birthday Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=42371|date=2 June 1961|page=4181|supp=y}}</ref> Hake spent his final years afflicted by lameness and blindness living between Mount Wilson and Glenhaven. Hake died at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney on 12 April 1975. He was survived by his wife and three daughters.<ref name="BIO"/> His uncle, Stanley Toyne, was also a first-class cricketer.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{cricinfo|id=13996}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hake, Herbert}} Category:1894 births Category:1975 deaths Category:Sportspeople from Christchurch, Dorset Category:Cricketers from Hampshire Category:People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Royal Hampshire Regiment officers Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Category:English cricketers Category:Cambridge University cricketers Category:Hampshire cricketers Category:Schoolteachers from Hampshire Category:English emigrants to Australia Category:Australian headmasters Category:Chairmen of the Headmasters' Conference of the Independent Schools of Australia Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:English blind people Category:20th-century English sportsmen Category:Heads of schools in New South Wales