Harold Fawcus

The son of John Fawcus, he was born at South Charlton in Northumberland.[1] He was educated at Durham College, before studying medicine at the Durham University College of Medicine.[1] During this time he played rugby union for Durham and Northumberland,[1] as well as debuting in minor counties cricket for Northumberland in the 1898 Minor Counties Championship.[2] After completing his studies at Durham, Fawcus was commissioned into the British Army as a lieutenant with the Royal Army Medical Corps in May 1900.[3] He served in the Second Boer War, taking part in operations in Natal, Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal Colony.[1] He was awarded both the Queen's South Africa Medal and the King's South Africa Medal.[1] He was promoted to the rank of captain in May 1903,[4] and obtained a diploma in public health in 1905. At his examination for promotion to major in 1907 he obtained a first-class certificate enabling him to year's acceleration of promotion, something only two other officers in the British Army had achieved to that point.[1]

He had played his final minor counties matches for Northumberland in 1906.[2] He served in South Africa around 1910, during which he made his debut in first-class cricket for Orange Free State against Transvaal in the 1910/11 Currie Cup.[5] Fawcus appeared for Orange Free State on five more occasions during the competition,[5] scoring 184 runs with a high score of 48,[6] while taking 33 wickets with his right-arm medium pace, with his 33 wickets costing 12.72 apiece. His best figures were 7 for 19 and he twice took a five wicket haul and ten wickets in a match.[7] He was promoted to the rank of major in May 1911,[8] He was appointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Professor of Hygiene at the Royal Army Medical College,[9] a role he undertook from 1912 to 1914.[1] Fawcus played first-class cricket for the British Army cricket team in 1913–14, making three appearances.[5] In these he scored 92 runs with a high score of 56,[6] while with the ball he took 12 wickets with best figures of 5 for 11, which came against the Royal Navy in 1913.[7][10] He was appointed to the Army School of Sanitation at Aldershot Garrison prior to the First World War.[1][9]

Fawcus served during the war and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in March 1915.[11] He was made a member of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1915 Birthday Honours.[12] He was made a temporary colonel in April 1917.[13] He awarded the Croix de guerre by France in June 1917.[14] Throughout the course of the war, Fawcus was mentioned in dispatches six times.[1]

Following the war, he was promoted to the rank of brevet colonel in June 1919,[15] and in the same year he served in the Third Anglo-Afghan War.[1] He served as an assistant director-general at the War Office from June 1922 – July 1926.[16][1] He was appointed as the honorary physician to George V in January 1923, following the retirement of Sir Alfred Blenkinsop.[17] He was promoted to the full rank of colonel in June 1926,[18] with appointment in the same month as a deputy director-general at the War Office.[19] He was promoted to the rank of major-general in October 1926.[20] He was knighted in the 1928 Birthday Honours.[21] He was appointed as the director-general of Army Medical Services in September 1929,[1] at which point he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general.[22] He was made a member of the Order of the Bath in the 1931 New Year Honours.[23] Fawcus was presented with an honorary degree in civil law by Durham University in 1930.[24] He served as the director-general of Army Medical Services until his retirement from active service in March 1934.[25] Following his retirement he was replaced as the personal physician for George V by J. W. L. Scott.[26] While serving as director-general, he won the General's Cup in golf at Sandwich in 1931.[1]

He became the director-general of the British Red Cross in 1934, a position he would hold until 1938.[1] He was appointed as the colonel commandant of the Royal Army Medical Corps in December 1938,[27] a ceremonial role he would hold until he relinquished it in August 1941 on account of ill health.[28][1] He was instrumental in developing professional opportunities for Royal Army Medical Corps personal and in revising the status of the Royal Army Medical College, both endeavours he self-funded at no cost to the state.[1] He was a commissioner for the Royal Hospital Chelsea.[1] He also presided over the Duke-Fingard Inhalation Treatment Centre in Kensington, where he sought to make advancements in the treatment of asthma.[29]He died at the age of 71 at Hillingdon in October 1947, with his funeral service carried out in the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks.[29]

• Harold Fawcus at ESPNcricinfo