John Lomas (cricketer)

John Millington Lomas (12 December 1917 – 4 December 1945) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Oxford University in 1938 and 1939.

John Lomas

Personal information
Full name	John Millington Lomas
Born	(1917-12-12)12 December 1917 Ashtead, Surrey, England
Died	4 December 1945(1945-12-04) (aged 27) Pimlico, London, England
Batting	Right-handed
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1938 to 1939	Oxford University
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 23 Runs scored 1460 Batting average 34.76 100s/50s 2/10 Top score 138 Balls bowled – Wickets – Bowling average – 5 wickets in innings – 10 wickets in match – Best bowling – Catches/stumpings 10/0
Source: Cricinfo, 31 August 2019

Life and career

Lomas was an outstanding schoolboy cricketer at Charterhouse School. He captained the school team in 1936, leading them through the season unbeaten against other schools and inflicting Eton's first loss to another school since 1920.^[1] He was awarded a scholarship to Oxford University, where he won Blues for both cricket and football, and was secretary of both clubs.^[2]

An opening batsman and fine fieldsman, Lomas had an outstanding first season with Oxford in 1938, scoring 908 runs at an average of 45.40.^[3][1] Troubled by ill-health in 1939 he was less successful, but nevertheless made his highest score of 138 against a strong MCC side at Lord's.^[4][5]

When the Second World War began Lomas enlisted in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, but was invalided out in 1940 owing to illness.^[2] For a time he worked at the Admiralty, but his health again failed him and he returned to his studies at Oxford.^[5] He completed his law degree in 1945 and was made a fellow of New College, Oxford. However, with his final bar exams approaching, Lomas gassed himself in December 1945.^[2] The cricket writer R. C. Robertson-Glasgow, an admirer of Lomas's batting, observed that "the current of his thought and ambitions ran deep out of the sight of common day and common intercourse".^[2]

He was a close friend of the mathematician G. H. Hardy, a cricket lover. Hardy dedicated A Mathematician's Apology (1940) to Lomas with an inscription explaining that Lomas had asked him to write the work.^[6]