Harry Stanley 'Stan' Squires (born February 22, 1909 at Kingston upon Thames

Kingston upon Thames

Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

; died January 24, 1950 at Old Deer Park

Old Deer Park

Old Deer Park is an area of open space within Richmond-upon-Thames, England, and is in extent. The park is bounded generally by the River Thames to the west, Kew Gardens to the north, and urban areas of Richmond town to the east and south. Owned by the Crown Estate, the park forms part of a larger...

, Richmond, Surrey) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er. He was primarily a notably stylish right-handed batsman, but was also a useful right-arm off break

Off break

Off break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is the attacking delivery of an off spin bowler. Off breaks are known as off spinners....

 and, later in his career, leg break

Leg break

A leg break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. A delivery of a right-handed leg spin bowler. Leg breaks are also colloquially known as leggies or wrist spinners, as the wrist is the body part which is primarily used to impart spin on the ball, as opposed to the fingers in the case of...

 bowler, as well as being a fine fielder.

He played first-class cricket

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 for Surrey from 1928 to 1949, the first two seasons as an amateur and subsequently as a professional. During that time he played in 410 first-class matches, all but eight of them for Surrey. He scored 19186 runs at an average of 31.24, with 37 hundreds and a highest score of 236 against Lancashire at The Oval

The Oval

The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...

 in 1933. He took 306 wickets at 35.34, with best innings figures of 8/52. During his career he wore first spectacles and then contact lenses. His Wisden obituary said that "no more popular player wore the Surrey colours".

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 he served with the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

, reaching the rank of Flying Officer

Flying Officer

Flying officer is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence...

. Subsequently he ran a pub.

He died at the early age of forty. He was playing as well as ever in the season prior to his death, scoring 1,785 runs at 37.18. Shortly before his fatal illness, caused by a blood virus, he won a golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 foursome competition for his club, Fulwell. He was also a boxer

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

, and played squash, rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 and football.