Bruce Hylton-Stewart

English musician, schoolteacher, and cricketer

Bruce Hylton-Stewart

Personal information

Full name|

Bruce de la Coeur Hylton-Stewart

Born| (1891-11-27)27 November 1891
New Brighton, Cheshire, England
Died| 1 October 1972(1972-10-01) (aged 80)
Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
Batting| Right-handed
Bowling| Right-arm fast-medium
Role| All-rounder
Domestic team information
Years| Team
1912–1914| Somerset
FC debut| 17 June 1912 Somerset v South Africans
Last FC| 1 September 1914 Somerset v Essex
Career statistics
| Competition | First-class

|

Matches | 36
Runs scored | 1,003
Batting average | 17.59
100s/50s | 1/2
Top score | 110
Balls bowled | 2,805
Wickets | 58
Bowling average | 28.70
5 wickets in innings | 2
10 wickets in match | 0
Best bowling | 5/3
Catches/stumpings | 17/–

Source: CricketArchive, 9 November 2008

Bruce de la Coeur Hylton-Stewart (27 November 1891 – 1 October 1972) was a musician and schoolteacher who played first-class cricket for Somerset and Cambridge University between 1912 and 1914.

Born at New Brighton and brought up also in Cheshire, where his father Charles Henry Hylton Stewart was a minor canon of Chester Cathedral.[1] Hylton-Stewart was educated at Bath College,[2] then went up to Peterhouse, Cambridge, with an organ scholarship.[3] He was a right-handed lower or middle order batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler.

He first appeared in first-class cricket in the Somerset match against the South Africans in 1912, when he replaced the injured Harry Chidgey after the game had started.[4] Two weeks later, he made his only appearance of the 1912 season for Cambridge University, and then from mid-July appeared fairly regularly for Somerset for the rest of the season. His batting was not successful, but he had one sensational day as a bowler, taking five wickets for three runs in 14 balls against Worcestershire at Stourbridge: these remained the best bowling figures of his first-class cricket career.[5]

In 1913, Hylton-Stewart played 11 first-class matches, most of them in the second half of the season and all of them for Somerset. He took five wickets in an innings for a second time, this time five for 72 against Yorkshire at Park Avenue, Bradford.[6] His batting improved as well, and he made his first score of more than 50, an unbeaten 72 against Sussex at Bath.[7]

The 1914 season was Hylton-Stewart's most successful as a batsman – he made 520 runs at an average of 20.80 per innings. After two matches for Cambridge in mid-season, he again played most of Somerset's matches in the second half of the year. Batting now in the middle order, he made his only first-class century, 110, made in 105 minutes out of an innings of 220, against Essex at Leyton.[8] And late in the season, he made 91 against Worcestershire at Taunton.[9]

During the First World War Hylton-Stewart was commissioned in the British Army and served with school Officers' Training Corps (OTC), first at The Leys School and then at Haileybury.[10] He remained with the Haileybury OTC until 1929 when he resigned his commission.[11]

Hylton-Stewart did not return to first-class cricket after the First World War but played Minor Counties cricket for Hertfordshire up to 1927.

Hylton-Stewart taught at Marlborough College 1934–54 and then was Director of Music and organist at St James's Church, Piccadilly, 1954–70.[12] He died at Marlborough.

## Note on spelling

[edit]

Hylton-Stewart's surname is written without a hyphen in some non-cricketing references, regularly with a hyphen in cricketing references. Both his father and his older brother, Charles Hylton Stewart (1884–1932), who achieved fame as a composer of church music including settings for Psalms and as the organist at Rochester and Chester Cathedrals and at St George's Chapel, Windsor, are generally written without a hyphen.[1]

Bruce Hylton-Stewart's middle name is also, in some references, spelled as "Delacour".[1][2]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c "Person Page 4740". thePeerage.com. Retrieved 9 November 2008.[unreliable source]
2. ^ a b "Obituaries, 1972". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1973 ed.). Wisden. p. 1009.
3. ^ "University Intelligence". The Times. London. 21 February 1910. p. 6.
4. ^ "Somerset v South Africans". CricketArchive. 17 June 1912. Retrieved 9 November 2008.
5. ^ "Worcestershire v Somerset". CricketArchive. 19 August 1912. Retrieved 9 November 2008.
6. ^ "Yorkshire v Somerset". CricketArchive. 30 June 1913. Retrieved 9 November 2008.
7. ^ "Somerset v Sussex". CricketArchive. 31 July 1913. Retrieved 9 November 2008.
8. ^ "Essex v Somerset". CricketArchive. 20 July 1914. Retrieved 9 November 2008.
9. ^ "Somerset v Worcestershire". CricketArchive. 13 August 1914. Retrieved 9 November 2008.
10. ^ "No. 29489". The London Gazette. 25 February 1916. p. 2113.
11. ^ "No. 33487". The London Gazette. 19 April 1929. p. 2597.
12. ^ Marlborough College Register 1903–1996. p. 41.