Charles Watts (cricketer, born 1905)

Charles John Manning Watts (30 September 1905 – 8 February 1985) was an English cricketer. Watts was a right-handed batsman who fielded as a wicket-keeper. He was born in Kislingbury, Northamptonshire and educated at Repton School, where he played for the school cricket team.[1]

Watts later attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, as a Gentlemen Cadet, where he graduated and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Northamptonshire Regiment.[2] He made his first-class debut for Essex against Leicestershire in the 1928 County Championship. He made 7 further first-class appearances for Essex in that season, the last of which came against Lancashire.[3] In his 8 first-class matches, he scored 119 runs at an average of 10.81, with a high score of 41. Behind the stumps he took 2 catches and made 2 stumpings.[4]

Continuing his military career, he was promoted to Lieutenant on 4 August 1929.[5] He served in British Malaya in 1935, where he was granted the local (temporary) rank of Captain while serving there,[6] a rank he held until 1937.[7] He later saw active service in the Second World War, holding the rank of Major by the war's end as an officer of the Suffolk Regiment.[8] He died in Northampton on 8 February 1985.