One hundred years ago today, BP Nevile became the fifth Worcestershire CCC player to be killed in action during the First World War.
Captain Bernard Philip Nevile, 7th (*Service) Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, was killed at The Bluff, three miles south of Ypres, in Belgium, on February 11, 1916.
Lincolnshire-born Nevile made his first-class debut in June 1912, playing for Free Foresters against Cambridge University.
He played in five first class games for Worcestershire in 1913 and his performances included 3-29 against Kent and 4-53 against Surrey.
Capt. BP Nevile has at least five memorials – on The Menin Gate (Panel 21) Ypres, at Downside School, at Trinity College Cambridge, the War Memorial near his family home at Wellingore Lincolnshire, and the recently restored oak tablet at WCCC.
For more details about Bernard Nevile’s life and death, see page 171 of 'Pears 150 The Life And Times of WCCC 1865-2014' by Andrew Thomas.
Copies of the book, priced £28, can still be purchased during the winter – please leave email and phone details in the offices at New Road – and from the Supporters' Association Shop on match-days during the season.
*Just to confirm that Nevile with one 'l' is the correct spelling.