Johnny Douglas
Encyclopedia
John "Johnny" William Henry Tyler Douglas (3 September 1882 - 19 December 1930) was a cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er who was captain of the England team and an Olympic boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

.

Early life

Douglas was the son of John H. Douglas and was born at Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in what is now Belfast Road. He was educated at Felsted School
Felsted School
Felsted School, an English co-educational day and boarding independent school, situated in Felsted, Essex. It is in the British Public School tradition, and was founded in 1564 by Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich who, as Lord Chancellor and Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, acquired...

 and joined his father's wood-importing firm, which supported his amateur status in cricket and boxing. Douglas also played football once for the England amateur side (occasion unknown, through loss of records). He served in the Bedfordshire Regiment throughout World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, eventually as major (acting lieutenant-colonel).

Boxing career

Douglas was an excellent Middleweight
Middleweight
Middleweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s. In the bare-knuckle era, the first middleweight championship fight was between Tom Chandler and Dooney Harris in 1897...

 boxer becoming Olympic champion
Boxing at the 1908 Summer Olympics - Middleweight
-Competition:Round of 16The first round was characterized by knockouts, as all three Frenchmen as well as Dees were out before the start of the third round. Aspa managed to make it through two rounds before withdrawing due to a thumb injury. Doudelle went down the quickest, in the first round,...

 at the 1908 Games
1908 Summer Olympics
The 1908 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in 1908 in London, England, United Kingdom. These games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. At the time they were the fifth modern Olympic games...

 held in London. All his three bouts were on the same day, and the final required a fourth round to find a winner. Australian supporters of the silver medal winner, Snowy Baker
Reginald Baker
Reginald Leslie "Snowy" Baker was an Australian athlete, sports promoter and film actor, who was born in Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales...

, often claim that Douglas' father was the referee and sole judge, but Douglas Sr was there merely to present medals, and had no part in the actual judging. Douglas Jr, his father and his younger brother, Cecil ('Pickles') were all prominent referees and officials in the Amateur Boxing Association of England
Amateur Boxing Association of England
The Amateur Boxing Association of England is the governing body of amateur boxing clubs in England. There are separate organisations for Scotland and Wales with boxing in Northern Ireland being organised on an All-Ireland basis. The Association was founded in 1880...

, the last also being the leading referee in the professional sport in the 1930s.

Olympic results

  • Defeated René Doudelle (France) KO 1
  • 2nd round bye
  • Defeated Ruben Warnes (Great Britain) KO 2
  • Defeated Snowy Baker
    Reginald Baker
    Reginald Leslie "Snowy" Baker was an Australian athlete, sports promoter and film actor, who was born in Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales...

     (Australia) 2-0

Cricket career

Douglas was an untiring fast-medium bowler and obdurate batsman who was nicknamed with a play on his initials JWHTD "Johnny Won't Hit Today" by Australian hecklers. He captained the school teams at Felsted and was a member of Wanstead C.C. He played for Essex
Essex County Cricket Club
Essex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Essex. Its limited overs team is called the Essex Eagles, their team colours this season are blue.The club plays most of its home games...

 in 1902 and for London County
London County Cricket Club
London County Cricket Club was a short-lived cricket club founded by the Crystal Palace Company. In 1898 they invited WG Grace to help them form a first-class cricket club. Grace accepted the offer and became the club's secretary, manager and captain. As a result, he severed his connection with...

 in 1903. In 1904 he returned to Essex where he remained, captaining the side from 1911 to 1928. He played for England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...

 before and after the First World War. Douglas was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1915, but play was suspended during the war years. After the war until 1923 had to carry Essex's bowling on his shoulders except when George Louden
George Louden
George Louden was an Essex cricketer who was for a period after World War I almost certainly the best hard-wicket bowler in England...

 turned out. He took over 100 wickets in a season seven times with a best of 147 in 1920. The following year against Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...

 he produced perhaps the most remarkable all-round performance in cricket history. After taking nine for 47, Douglas stopped a breakdown against Bill Bestwick with an unbeaten 210 that tired him so much he did not bowl until the end of Derbyshire's second innings. He then took two for none, giving him a match record of eleven for 47.

Douglas captained England eighteen times, with a Test match
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

 record of won eight, lost eight, drawn two. Successful as stand-in captain in Australia in 1911, he won the series 4-1. On the 1920/21 tour of Australia he led a depleted post-war side which suffered a 0–5 'whitewash', a scoreline not repeated until the 2006/7 England lost by the same margin. Reappointed reluctantly by the M.C.C. in 1921, he lost the first two Tests at home to Warwick Armstrong
Warwick Armstrong
Warwick Windridge Armstrong was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921 and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two...

's side and was displaced as captain but retained in the XI. He captained England in one further Test match, against South Africa in July 1924, and played his final Test on the 1924/25 England tour of Australia.

Later life

Douglas married Evelyn Ruby Case, the widowed sister of two of his close wartime friends, on 25 December 1916. He had no children but one stepson. He drowned when the Oberon, on which he and his father were travelling, was wrecked seven miles south of the Laeso Trindel Lightship, Denmark. It had collided with a sister-vessel in foggy weather when the two captains who were brothers were attempting to exchange Christmas greetings. According to a witness at the post mortem enquiry, Douglas may well have been trying to save his father. They had been purchasing timber in Finland. He was aged 48.

External references

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