Michael Richard Gratwicke Earls-Davis (1921-2016)
Tribute by James Earls-Davis, 26 April 2016
Firstly, we, and by that I mean Dad’s family, would like to thank you all for coming today, some of you from a long way off, and to thank everyone who sent such heartfelt and touching letters and remembrances to my mother and us. We would also like to give our sincere thanks and appreciation to the nurses and staff at the Yeatman Hospital who cared so wonderfully for Dad during his last few weeks. That so many people are here today is in itself a tribute to Dad and evidence of the affection admiration and respect in which he was held. I know how embarrassed Dad would be at all this attention and, as Mum said, at the thought of “people saying nice things about him”, because above all he was a very modest and unassuming gentle man. Well, sorry Dad, embarrassed you’ll have to be! It is quite remarkable the number of comments from his and Mum’s friends, colleagues , ex-pupils and sports associates that speak of his kindness, support and interest. And the number of people that mention how he beat them at Squash….although I seem to remember that he always let me win when I played him! Over the last few years whenever I spoke to Dad on the phone the first thing he asked me was how the running or cycling was going and whether I had any events coming up.
I suspect that the majority of you knew Dad as a schoolmaster. He taught for 7 years at Downside before returning here to Sherborne in 1954. He always enjoyed school communities and the company of both boys and colleagues, especially when he was Housemaster of The Green. Schoolmastering gave him opportunities for organisation (which he was very good at), for teaching and encouraging, and for coaching and inspiring. He believed that all games (in his case cricket and squash) should be fun but he insisted on high standards, both on and off the field.
The 6 years he spent in the Irish Guards during the War influenced many areas of Dads life. He always had shoes you could see your face in, trousers with a knife edge crease and a desk where even the pens stood to attention. Life in the Army was followed by a wonderful year back at Cambridge to complete the degree he had started in 1939. Dad never ceased to be grateful for this, for the education, for the friends he made, and for the opportunities offered, especially on the cricket field. Dad always had a great capacity for friendship throughout his life. Several former members of staff have commented on how welcoming he was to new, young and rather nervous masters; and how he, a county squad player, was happy to play with inexperienced players.
Dad maintained contact with friends from School, Cambridge, Downside, and the Army. I believe that we have in the congregation some of the family of Dad’s Company Sergeant Major with whom he was in regular contact until his 100th birthday.
Dad was always immensely grateful for and to his family, and expressed his thanks for even the smallest thing done for him. He loved having children around and, as the years went by, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Although I’m not sure he loved every moment that my sister, brother and myself were teenagers!
He particularly enjoyed the garden and took great pride in the lawn that he kept looking like a bowling green. In his late 80s he even attempted to play Badminton on it with his grandchildren, but ended up falling into one of the bushes!
I have many fantastic memories of Dad and I’d like to recall a couple here. In about 1973 the local folk band The Yetties were recording their latest album of popular songs from the First and Second World Wars live at the Digby Hall, and Dad took me along. It was a long evening with several stops and retakes, but I loved it and was thrilled when Dad managed to get me backstage to see how they had set up the recording studio. The thing that struck me when I remembered this recently was how one particular song that was sung that night unknowingly involved Dad. The Yetties sang “The D-Day Dodgers” to the tune of Lily Marlene. The words are a very moving and angry rebuttal to Lady Astor regarding a comment she made about those soldiers who fought at Anzio and how they had avoided the D-Day landings. Well, I didn’t know this at the time, but Dad had served at Anzio with the Irish Guards, so the relevance of that song must have meant a lot to him and he always said that Lily Marlene was one of his favourite tunes.
On a lighter, but not unconnected note, several years later I was playing “The Intro and The Outro” by the splendid Bonzo Dog Doh-Dah Band, which starts by introducing the players in the band but develops into an increasing ridiculous and surreal roll call of accompanists, including Princess Anne on Sousaphone and Harold Wilson on violin. Dad poked his head around my bedroom door and demanded to know what this song was as he was particularly tickled by the line “and looking very relaxed, Adolf Hitler on Vibes…Nice.”
Indeed his sense of humour and love of the silly was a thing I especially recall from my childhood. And one memory that is shared by everyone in Dad’s family is of how he would always stand and wave at our departure until he was a dot in the distance.
I would like to read some extracts from the many wonderful letters that we have received over the last few weeks:
“To so many of us, quite old and not quite so old, he inspired and taught us with standards of his own that few could match.”
“He was one of the most charming, gallant and delightful of men, he was always so glamorous and dashing”.
“He was such a modest man and rarely mentioned his own considerable achievements but rather convey words of praise and encouragement to others”.
“He was a man you could trust and one whose opinion you always respected”.
“His genuine delight at seeing his former pupils, his interest in what we were up to, and his overall goodness”
“Mike was always a gentleman. Inevitably polite, well dressed and genuinely interested in what one was doing. The routine of the Marching Band was always a highlight of the Tattoo, his attention to detail was much in evidence”.
“He was such a lovely man, with his beautiful manners and his smiling eyes”.
And one final quote:
“How lucky I have been, along with so many Shirburnians, to have known him. For you and all your family there will be much sadness that his great innings has come to an end”
Of course, undoubtedly the most important and overwhelming achievement of his long and special life has been his marriage to Ann, Mum, without both of whom Lucy, William and myself would have had very different experiences. It has been a partnership of 57 years and one that has touched and influenced so many friends and family and I hope one that everyone might aspire to. Dad had had an extraordinarily full life and had influenced so many people in so many positive ways. He had a family that adored him, and a home in a community that was always welcoming and supportive. In one of the last chats I had with him at the hospital he looked at me and said of his life “It’s been fun”. Above all, Dad was a gentleman and gentle man.
Tribute by George Tatham, 26 April 2016.
Many of us here will know Mike from the common room, class room, playing field, squash court or parade ground and all of us will appreciate with one accord the universal warmth and affection in which he is held. Through my friendship with him in his later years I have learnt something of his sporting achievements-always expressed with humour, modesty and insight-and this address will focus on his lifelong involvement with cricket.
In an article written for The Shirburnian soon after he returned to Sherborne as a master in 1954, he opined that it had become imperative to make it clear to the Lower School that he was neither a contemporary of King Alfred nor did he remember Cromwell’s troops being billeted in the Abbey. As a right-arm medium fast bowler and hard hitting left handed batsman, his cricketing career spanned the pre-war, wartime and post-war eras.
He learnt his cricket at Eastbourne and Sherborne and was a successful member of the 1938 & 1939 1st XI sides, finishing with a total of 53 wickets. If he survived the first three overs, it was said, that his batting could generate a quick succession of boundaries. Harry Brewer tells me that the Sherborne Headmaster, Ross Wallace, laid a wager of 2/6 with Mike that he couldn’t land a ball on the Chapel roof at Blundells. Mike accepted the challenge scoring 55*, including 5 sixes, one of which secured him the half-a-crown! I believe Mike is now the final player from these elevens to leave the crease, four of whom fell in the Second World War. An altogether different form of cricket was encountered when playing for the Agriculturists C.C. (an occasional School House team.) Invited to play for them on their home ground-the ‘Cabbage Patch’ when already a member of the 1st XI and accustomed to taking his cricket seriously, Mike was unprepared when they walked out to field and were formed into a small circle in the middle of the pitch. On the command ‘Outwards turn. Quick March’ the team walked about twenty paces before responding to the command ‘Halt. About Turn.’ Thus arranged in a circle their fielding positions were established and there they remained regardless of the tactical situation. Whenever a wicket fell the whole team performed a cartwheel or handstand and it was considered bad form to block more than one ball in six when batting. The Club’s ethos is encapsulated in the following report: ‘So far we have had a most successful season: out of four matches we have lost three.’
Mike went up to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge but war intervened and he played just three games before being commissioned into the Irish Guards. A highlight for him was opening the bowling against a Combined Services XI with his Sherborne friend Humphrey Bashford-‘just like we did at Sherborne’ Mike recalled with pride. In the same match, Mike dismissed Norman Yardley L.B.W for 138.
The Irish Guards suffered heavy losses at Anzio in 1944 and on their return to England were stationed at Hawick in the Scottish Borders where Mike proceeded to play for Hawick, the Regiment and the Army, for whom he was selected in 1945, together with four pre-war County Cricket captains, to play against a British Empire XI. In 1946 he was playing for the British Army on the Rhine, returning in 1947 to Cambridge University to play a further five matches, in one of which he dismissed Don Kenyon (Worcester and England) in both innings. Trevor Bailey was a contemporary and friend, but the decision to include an extra batsman for the Varsity match deprived Mike of a place in the team. While teaching at Downside he played for Midsomer Norton and also captained the Somerset 2nd XI in 1949, 1950 and 1951 and played one game for the County in 1950. On moving to Sherborne he played his cricket for Sherborne Town, the Pilgrims (a team for Old Shirburnians) and a litany of ‘wandering’ clubs, including the MCC and Jim Swanton’s team-the Arabs. With his passing we have lost a tangible connection with a vanished past.
Mention must also be made of his involvement with squash at Downside, Sherborne and the Somerset County team. He recalled ‘twelve wonderfully happy seasons’ at Sherborne and in particular the winning of the Londonderry Cup in March 1962, Anthony Fletcher securing the victory with ‘a superb length stroke down the backhand wall’.
Mike’s post-war career coincided with the gradual withdrawal of the ‘amateur’ from cricket-for instance, in 1950 the Somerset squad contained twelve professionals and six amateurs-but his approach and commitment to the game epitomized the attitudes and values of the ‘amateur’ tradition: courtesy, regard for others, sportsmanship, humour and generosity of spirit. These virtues struck a chord with me when reading Mike Brearley’s recent article on the Spirit of Cricket with its ‘exhortation to keep certain values in mind in one’s approach to the game.’ Mike’s competitive instinct remained strong and he always played hard to win, but fellowship and camaraderie after the match were just as important.
In closing, thank you Mike, it has been a memorable innings.
Michael Richard Gratwicke Earls-Davis (1921-2016).
Born 21 February 1921.
School House (a) 1935-1939.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
Assistant Master, Sherborne School, 1954-1978.
Commanding Officer of the CCF 1959-1966.
Housemaster of The Green 1966-1975.
Registrar 1980-1985.
Honorary Secretary Old Shirburnian Society 1980-1992.
President of the Pilgrims 1984-1988.
Died 2016.