Alan Luther

Alan Charles Grenville Luther MC (17 September 1880 – 23 June 1961) was an English soldier and cricketer.

Educated at Rugby, where he appeared in the First XI in 1897 and 1898,[1] Luther did his military training at Sandhurst. He joined the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, where he attained the rank of major and was awarded the Military Cross.[2] During the Battle of Le Cateau in the First World War, whilst lying wounded in no-man's-land, Luther was discovered by a German soldier, who searched him only to find his Marylebone Cricket Club membership card in his wallet. The German soldier, who had lived in Derbyshire before the war and appreciated the game of cricket, allowed Luther to return to the British trenches unharmed.[3][4]

Luther played cricket at various levels until his late forties, mostly as a batsman, including nine first-class matches for Sussex in 1908 and eight for MCC from 1908 to 1911. His highest first-class score was 42, for MCC against Leicestershire in 1909.[5] He played Minor Counties cricket for Berkshire in 1926 and 1927, scoring 101 out of a team total of 194 against Hertfordshire in 1927.[6]

He served as secretary of Berkshire County Cricket Club and assistant secretary of Surrey.[1] At The Oval in the late 1920s he organized the net sessions for young club members; Ronald Mason remembers him as "tall and willowy with a shock of grey hair on a handsome head that swayed engagingly as he walked".[7]

Luther was also a prominent rackets player.[1] He married Mary Noel in July 1921. They had one son.[2]