Richard Worsley (cricketer)

Richard Stanley Worsley DSO (7 September 1879 – 4 May 1917) was an English first-class cricketer and British Army officer.

The son of Major General Richard Worsley, he was born at Harrington Hall in Lincolnshire in September 1879.[1] He was educated at Wellington College, before attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.[2] Worsley graduated from Sandhurst into the Royal Army Service Corps as a second lieutenant in February 1900.[3] He served in the Second Boer War between 1900 and 1902, receiving the Queen's and King's South Africa Medal, with five clasps,[1] in addition to gaining promotion to lieutenant.[4] He remained in South Africa after the war, playing in a single first-class cricket match in the Currie Cup for Orange Free State against Transvaal at Bloemfontein in 1904.[5] He batted twice in the match and was dismissed for scores of 2 and 10 by Gordon White and George Shepstone respectively.[6] He was promoted to captain in June 1904.[7]

In January 1911, he was seconded for duty as an adjutant with the East Lancashire Divisional Transport and Supply Column.[8][9] Worsley was seconded for duty with the Egyptian Army in 1913.[10] He served in the First World War and was promoted to major in October 1914.[11] He saw action during the Gallipoli campaign from April to September 1915, prior to taking part in the Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition of 1916.[1] He was mentioned three times in dispatches three times during the war and was made a Companion to the Distinguished Service Order in May 1916.[12] He was mentioned a further two times in dispatches during the Dafur expedition and received a letter of thanks from the Sirdar, Sir Reginald Wingate.[1] Worsley was returning to England to take up a new post aboard the transport ship SS Transylvania off the coast of Bergeggi,[2] which was being escorted by the Japanese ships Matsu and Sakaki. On 4 May 1917, the ship was torpedoed by the German U-boat SM U-63 under the command of Otto Schultze. Despite attempts to evacuate the ship by Matsu, twenty minutes after the first torpedo had hit, U-63 fired a second which hit Transylvania again, causing the ship to rapidly sink. Worsley was one of 412 people killed aboard the ship.[2]