# Michael Packe

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{{Use British English|date=February 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox cricketer
|                name = Michael Packe
|             country = England
|            fullname = Michael St John Packe
|          birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|8|21|df=yes}}
|         birth_place = [Eastbourne](/source/Eastbourne), Sussex, England
|          death_date = {{Death date and age|1978|12|20|1916|8|21|df=yes}}
|         death_place = [St Anne, Alderney](/source/St_Anne%2C_Alderney), Channel Islands
|             batting = Right-handed
|                role = [Batsman](/source/Batsman)
|               club1 = [Leicestershire](/source/Leicestershire_County_Cricket_Club)
|               year1 = {{nowrap|1936–1939}}
|               club2 = [Cambridge University](/source/Cambridge_University_Cricket_Club)
|               year2 = 1936–1938
|               type1 = First-class
|          debutdate1 = 10 June
|          debutyear1 = 1936
|           debutfor1 = Cambridge University
|       debutagainst1 = [Essex](/source/Essex_County_Cricket_Club)
|           lastdate1 = 30 August
|           lastyear1 = 1939
|            lastfor1 = Leicestershire
|        lastagainst1 = [Derbyshire](/source/Derbyshire_County_Cricket_Club)
|             columns = 1
|             column1 = [First-class](/source/First-class_cricket)
|            matches1 = 41
|               runs1 = 1151
|            bat avg1 = 18.86
|           100s/50s1 = 1/4
|          top score1 = 118
|         deliveries1 = 12
|            wickets1 = 1
|           bowl avg1 = 14.00
|            fivefor1 = 0
|             tenfor1 = 0
|       best bowling1 = 1/0
|  catches/stumpings1 = 30/–
|                date = 8 June
|                year = 2008
|              source = http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31836/31836.html CricketArchive
}}

'''Michael St John Packe''' (21 August 1916 – 20 December 1978) was an English historian, biographer, and [cricket](/source/cricket)er.<ref name="Arlott">John Arlott, "From Time to Time:  Michael Packe, late British author and cricketer" ''The Guardian'', 13 June 1986.</ref><ref>[http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/18711.html Cricinfo profile]</ref> He was the author of ''The Life of John Stuart Mill'' (1954), and four other historical works.  A right-handed [batsman](/source/batsman), he played for [Leicestershire County Cricket Club](/source/Leicestershire_County_Cricket_Club) between 1936 and 1939,<ref name="CAP">[http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31836/31836.html CricketArchive profile]</ref> [captaining](/source/Captain_(cricket)) them in 1939.<ref name="WisObit">Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1980, [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/228569.html Obituaries before 1979]</ref> He also played [first-class cricket](/source/first-class_cricket) for [Cambridge University](/source/Cambridge_University_Cricket_Club) and represented the [Egypt national cricket team](/source/Egypt_national_cricket_team).<ref>[http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31836/all_teams.html Teams played for by Michael Packe] at CricketArchive</ref>

==Personal life==
Born in [Eastbourne](/source/Eastbourne) in 1916,<ref name="CAP" /> Michael Packe was the younger brother of [Charles](/source/Charles_Packe_(cricketer)) and [Robert](/source/Robert_Packe) Packe, both of whom also played cricket for Leicestershire.<ref>[http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31837/31837.html Robert Packe] and [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31835/31835.html Charles Packe] at CricketArchive</ref> He was educated at [Wellington College](/source/Wellington_College%2C_Berkshire) and [Magdalene College, Cambridge](/source/Magdalene_College%2C_Cambridge), where he read history.<ref name="Arlott" /><ref name="WisObit" /> During World War II he served in the Royal Army Service Corps in the First Airborne Division, where he attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. After the [Battle of Arnhem](/source/Battle_of_Arnhem) in 1944 he was awarded the Dutch [Bronze Cross](/source/Bronze_Cross_(Netherlands));<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=37909 |supp=y |date=18 March 1947 |page=1315}}</ref> he was recommended for [OBE](/source/Officer_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/michael_packe.htm |title=Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Packe |publisher=Pegasus Archive}}</ref> but not appointed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unithistories.com/officers/1AirbDiv_officersP.htm |title=1st British Airborne Division officers – P |website=unithistories.com}}</ref> In 1946 he was demobilised and moved to [Alderney](/source/Alderney), where he grew vegetables commercially, wrote, and was involved in the island cricket team.  He was married to Kathryn Packe, a niece of [Edith Wharton](/source/Edith_Wharton).<ref name="Arlott" /> He died of a brain tumour on [Alderney](/source/Alderney) in 1978.<ref name="Arlott" />

==Published historical works==
Packe's first book was ''First Airborne'' (1948), reprinted in 1988 as ''Winged Stallion: Fighting and Training with the First Airborne'' ({{ISBN|0713720379}}).<ref name="Arlott" /> In 1954 he published the work for which he is best known, ''The Life of John Stuart Mill''.  The book was generally well received.  It was called by [Friedrich Hayek](/source/Friedrich_Hayek) "the definitive biography of Mill for which we have so long been waiting."<ref>F. A. Hayek, "Preface," in Michael St. John Packe, ''The Life of John Stuart Mill'' (1954)</ref> Other reviewers were more cautious.  [Lionel Robbins](/source/Lionel_Robbins) of the London School of Economics criticised the ''Life'' for neglecting Mill's economic thought, for demoting prominent philosophers such as [Jeremy Bentham](/source/Jeremy_Bentham) to the status of comic relief, and for using "a method of presentation which makes it very difficult to distinguish fact from fiction." But Robbins conceded that the book "abounds in new information" and that "it is certainly safe to say that in future no one who wishes to write seriously about Mill can afford to neglect what he [Packe] has done."<ref>Lionel Robbins, "Packe on Mill," ''Economica'', New Series, Vol. 24, No 95 (August 1957), pp. 250–259</ref> Later biographers of Mill continued to cite Packe's work; in his 2004 biography of Mill, [Nicholas Capaldi](/source/Nicholas_Capaldi) called Packe's biography "a gold mine of information," although "the stress is more on the life than on the thought."<ref>Nicholas Capaldi, ''John Stuart Mill: A Biography'' 2004 ({{ISBN|0521620244}})</ref>

Packe's next book, ''The Bombs of Orsini'' (1957) was a biography of [Felice Orsini](/source/Felice_Orsini), an Italian revolutionary who tried to assassinate [Napoleon III](/source/Napoleon_III).  In 1966 he and Maurice Dreyfuss published ''The Alderney Story, 1939–49,'' an account of Alderney's wartime occupation and liberation compiled while living witnesses were still available.<ref name="Arlott" /> Packe then began work on a biography of [Edward III](/source/Edward_III), but the book was incomplete when he died.<ref name="Arlott" /> This last book was completed by L.C.B. Seaman and published in 1983 as ''King Edward III'' ({{ISBN|0710090242}}).

==Cricket career==
Packe made his first-class debut for Cambridge University against [Essex](/source/Essex_County_Cricket_Club) in June 1936, playing for the university against the [Free Foresters](/source/Free_Foresters_Cricket_Club) the following week. He first played for Leicestershire in August that year, in a [County Championship](/source/County_Championship) match against [Northamptonshire](/source/Northamptonshire_County_Cricket_Club).  He played five more County Championship matches for Leicestershire that month.<ref name="FCM">[http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31836/First-Class_Matches.html First-class matches played by Michael Packe] at CricketArchive</ref>

He did not play for his university team in the [1937 season](/source/1937_English_cricket_season), but did play nine first-class matches for Leicestershire – seven in the County Championship, one against [Oxford University](/source/Oxford_University_Cricket_Club) and one against [New Zealand](/source/New_Zealand_national_cricket_team). He played just four matches in 1938, all for Cambridge University, including one against [Australia](/source/Australia_national_cricket_team). His last match for the university was against [Nottinghamshire](/source/Nottinghamshire_County_Cricket_Club).<ref name="FCM" />

In April 1939 he played for Egypt against [HM Martineau's XI](/source/Hubert_Martineau) in [Cairo](/source/Cairo).<ref>[http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31836/Other_matches.html Other matches played by Michael Packe] at CricketArchive</ref> Back in England, he captained Leicestershire during the [1939](/source/1939_English_cricket_season), playing in 18 County Championship matches in addition to matches against Cambridge University, Oxford University and the [West Indies](/source/West_Indies_cricket_team). His last first-class match was against [Derbyshire](/source/Derbyshire_County_Cricket_Club).<ref name="FCM" />

On Alderney he served as judge for the local cricket team [http://www.alderneycricket.com/History.htm History of Alderney Cricket], and he left Alderney each year to attend the Lord's Test.<ref name="Arlott" />

===Cricket statistics===
In his 41 first-class matches, Packe scored 1151 [runs](/source/Run_(cricket)) at an [average](/source/Batting_average_(cricket)) of 18.86. He made just one [century](/source/Century_(cricket)),<ref name="CAP" /> an [innings](/source/Innings) of 118 for Leicestershire against [Glamorgan](/source/Glamorgan_County_Cricket_Club) in 1936, described by [Wisden](/source/Wisden_Cricketers'_Almanack) as "brilliant".<ref name="WisObit" /> He took one [wicket](/source/Wicket),<ref name="CAP" /> that of [Yorkshire's](/source/Yorkshire_County_Cricket_Club) [Arthur Wood](/source/Arthur_Wood_(cricketer%2C_born_1898)) in 1939.<ref>[http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/16/16995.html Scorecard] of Yorkshire v Leicestershire, 7 June 1939 at CricketArchive</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Packe, Michael}}
Category:1916 births
Category:1978 deaths
Category:Cricketers from Eastbourne
Category:Egyptian cricketers
Category:English cricketers
Category:Leicestershire cricketers
Category:Leicestershire cricket captains
Category:Cambridge University cricketers
Category:English historians
Category:Military personnel from East Sussex
Category:People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire
Category:Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge
Category:Royal Army Service Corps officers
Category:British Army personnel of World War II
Category:Recipients of the Bronze Cross (Netherlands)
Category:20th-century English biographers

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Michael Packe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Packe) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Packe?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.