Guy Dury

Guy Alexander Ingram Dury MC (4 December 1895 – 10 August 1976) was an English cricketer and British Army officer. He served in both world wars with the London Regiment and the Grenadier Guards, winning the Military Cross during the First World War. He was a first-class cricketer who played for the British Army cricket team and the Free Foresters.

Guy Dury
Personal information
Full nameGuy Alexander Ingram Dury
Born4 December 1895
Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex,
England
Died10 August 1976(1976-08-10) (aged 80)
Eastbourne, Sussex, England
BattingUnknown
BowlingUnknown
RelationsTheodore Dury (father)
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 3
Runs scored 70
Batting average 14.00
100s/50s –/1
Top score 51
Balls bowled 198
Wickets 3
Bowling average 43.66
5 wickets in innings –
10 wickets in match –
Best bowling 2/51
Catches/stumpings –/–
Source: Cricinfo, 9 January 2019

Early life and World War I

The son of the first-class cricketer Theodore Dury and his wife Helen Isabella Ingram, Dury was born at Harrow-on-the-Hill.[1] He was educated at Harrow School,[2] where he played for the school cricket team in 1913 and 1914.[3] He enlisted in the 4th Battalion, London Regiment in January 1915 as a second lieutenant.[4] He served during World War I, firstly with the London Regiment where he gained the rank of temporary lieutenant in September 1915.[5] He served in the later stages of the war with the 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, and was given the temporary rank of captain in April 1918.[6] In June 1918 he received the Military Cross for "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty". Dury ran forwards from the support trenches to direct the defence of two forward posts under heavy machine gun fire.[7]

During the Battle of Albert in August 1918 he led his company in an attack that cleared the German trenches and captured a village.[8] Later in the day he fell victim to German gassing and was temporarily blinded.[9] One of his men later recalled that while recovering in the bed next to Dury in hospital he was reprimanded by him for stating that he was "In the Grenadiers" rather than the more formal "Grenadier Guards".[10]

In February 1918 he was one of just twenty guests at the wedding of ballerina Phyllis Bedells to fellow Grenadiers officer Ian MacBean.[11]

Later military career

Following the war, he was selected to play for H. D. G. Leveson Gower's cricket team in a first-class match against Cambridge University at Eastbourne in 1919.[12] Having relinquished the temporary rank of captain in January 1920,[13] Dury had his prior rank of lieutenant backdated in February 1921, with seniority to August 1917.[14] He was selected to play first-class cricket for the British Army cricket team against Cambridge University at Cambridge in May 1922.[12] He was promoted to the rank of captain in September 1923,[15] having served as an adjutant vice-captain since May 1922.[16] Dury made a third and final appearance in first-class cricket for the Free Foresters in June 1926 against Oxford University at Oxford,[12] during which he made a half century with 51 in the Free Foresters first-innings.[17] He retired from military service on 27 September 1931, retaining the rank of captain.[18]

Following the outbreak of World War II Dury was recalled to the army. Serving once more with the Grenadier Guards, he was promoted to the rank of brevet major in May 1942.[19] Dury served as the first commandant of a prisoner of war camp near Penrith, Cumbria, that held the German survivors of the sinking of the Bismarck.[20] Two Luftwaffe officers later made a daring escape from the camp in which they managed to steal an RAF training plane from RAF Kingstown. After they ran out of fuel and were recaptured near Great Yarmouth, Dury is said to have remarked: "One really has to take off one's hat to them ... I really regret having to lock them up."[21]

He exceeded the age to be recalled in August 1948, was removed from the reserve list of officers, and was granted the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel.[22]

Personal life

Dury married Rose Mary Dorothy Vernon-Harcourt (who had been a widow for 14 years) on 12 August 1949.[23] He died at Eastbourne in August 1976.[3]

References
  1. "Profile: Lt.-Col. Guy Alexander Ingram Dury". www.thepeerage.com. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  2. Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes. 95th volume. Kelly's Directories. 1969. p. 664.
  3. "Wisden – Obituaries in 1976". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  4. "No. 29041". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 January 1915. p. 494.
  5. "No. 29328". The London Gazette. 15 October 1915. p. 10167.
  6. "No. 30724". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 May 1918. p. 6540.
  7. "No. 30761". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 June 1918. p. 7409.
  8. Ponsonby, Frederick Edward Grey (1920). The Grenadier guards in the great war of 1914–1918. London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd. p. 128. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  9. Ponsonby, Frederick Edward Grey (1920). The Grenadier guards in the great war of 1914–1918. London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd. p. 129. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  10. Adair, Sir Allan; Lindsay, Oliver (1986). A Guards' General: The Memoirs of Major General Sir Allan Adair. Hamilton. p. 47. ISBN 9780241119471. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  11. Bedells, Phyllis (1954). My Dancing Days. PHOENIX HOUSE LTD. p. 96. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  12. "First-Class Matches played by Guy Dury". CricketArchive. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  13. "No. 31725". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 January 1920. p. 410.
  14. "No. 32228". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 February 1921. p. 1342.
  15. "No. 32861". The London Gazette. 11 September 1923. p. 6134.
  16. "No. 32714". The London Gazette. 30 May 1922. p. 4146.
  17. "Oxford University v Free Foresters, 1926". CricketArchive. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  18. "No. 33757". The London Gazette. 29 September 1931. p. 6236.
  19. "No. 35579". The London Gazette. 29 May 1942. p. 2368.
  20. Mullenheim-Rechberg, Burkard Baron Von (2012). Battleship Bismarck: A Survivor's Story. Naval Institute Press. p. 63. ISBN 9781612512945. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  21. Mullenheim-Rechberg, Burkard Baron Von (2012). Battleship Bismarck: A Survivor's Story. Naval Institute Press. p. 68. ISBN 9781612512945. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  22. "No. 38372". The London Gazette. 3 August 1948. p. 4381.
  23. Burrows, Raymond Earl (1975). Robert Burrows and descendants, 1630-1974. Burrows. p. 1097. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
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