Johnny Douglas

Douglas was the son of successful timber merchant John Herbert Douglas (1853–1930) and Julia Ann (née Tyler)[4] and was born at Stoke Newington, London in what is now Belfast Road. He was educated at Moulton Grammar School and Felsted School,[5] where at school he was coached by the former first-class player T.N. Perkins,[6] 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).[7] He served in the Bedfordshire Regiment throughout World War I, eventually as major (acting lieutenant-colonel).[8]

Douglas took up boxing while still a schoolboy, and won the Amateur Boxing Association 1905 middleweight title, when boxing out of the Belsize ABC.[6]

In 1908 Douglas won an Olympic gold medal as a middleweight boxer.[9] All three of his bouts, including the final, described by The Times as "one of the most brilliant exhibitions of skilful boxing, allied to tremendous hitting, ever seen.", were held on the same day.[10] The silver medal winner, Snowy Baker, 44 years later falsely claimed that Douglas's father was the sole judge and referee.

Baker never publicly contested the close points verdict which Douglas, who scored a second-round knockdown over him and won in their Olympic final. Yet, in a 1952 interview, he claimed that Douglas's father had refereed the fight, leading to widespread suspicion of a dodgy decision. In reality Douglas senior was at ringside, to present the medals, in his role as president of the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABA). The real referee was Eugene Corri, who did not have to give a casting vote as the two judges agreed that Douglas was a narrow winner.[10] Douglas Jr, his father and his younger brother, Cecil ('Pickles') were all prominent referees and officials in the ABA, the last also being the leading referee in the professional sport in the 1930s. Besides his Olympic gold, Douglas also won the 1905 ABA middleweight title.[11][12]

Douglas was an untiring fast-medium bowler and obdurate batsman who was nicknamed with a play on his initials JWHT as "Johnny Will Hit Today", or conversely "Johnny Won't Hit Today" by Australian hecklers. He captained the school teams at Felsted and was a member of Wanstead C.C. He made his Essex debut at the age of eighteen against Yorkshire, and bagged a pair, with George Hirst dismissing him in both innings.[6] He played in only two more matches that season, and in the 1902 season did not appear at all in first-class cricket, while working incessantly on his game in practice.[6] He regained his place in the Essex side in the 1903 season, playing eleven matches "but was still anything but a good player".[6] The improvements in his game continued, and by 1905 he had become a strong county bowler, finishing top of the Essex bowling averages with 31 wickets at an average of just above 26, and taking the first of his three first-class hat-tricks, against Yorkshire at Leyton.[6] In 1908, he passed 1000 runs in a season for the first time, and had matured into a leading all-rounder, who took over the captaincy of Essex in 1911, a captaincy which he retained until 1928.

He played for England 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 turned out. He took over 100 wickets in a season seven times with a best of 147 in 1920. The following year against Derbyshire he produced perhaps the most remarkable all-round performance in English first-class 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 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 in an Ashes series until the 2006/7 England team 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'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.[13]

Douglas with his orchids at home in Theydon Bois, Essex, 1926

Douglas married Evelyn Ruby (sister of two of his close wartime friends),[14] the widow of Captain Thomas Elphinstone Case, of the Coldstream Guards, daughter of Adolphus Ferguson and Minnie Byron,[15][16] on 25 December 1916. He had no children but one stepson, the actor Gerald Case.[17]

Douglas drowned when the Finnish passenger ship Oberon, on which he and his father were sailing back to Britain after buying timber in Finland, sank in the Kattegat seven miles south of the Læsø Trindel Lightship, Denmark. Another ship of the same line, Arcturus, had rammed her in fog after the two captains, who were brothers, had tried to exchange Christmas greetings.[18][19] According to a witness at the post mortem enquiry, Douglas may have been trying to save his father.[20] He was aged 48.

• Bray, Charles (1950). Essex County Cricket. London: Convoy Publications Ltd.
• Lemmon, David (1983). Johnny Won't Hit Today – A Cricketing Biography of J. W. H. T. Douglas. London: George Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0047960760.
• Wilson, RM (1956). The Big Ships. London: Cassell & Co. pp. 220, 221.

• Media related to Johnny Douglas at Wikimedia Commons
• Johnny Douglas at ESPNcricinfo
• "Player profiles". Corinthian Casuals FC. Archived from the original on 26 October 2018.