25 Facts About Jack Mason

John Richard Mason, known as Jack Mason, was an English amateur cricketer who played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club between 1893 and 1914, captaining the team between 1898 and 1902.

Over six feet tall, Mason was a right-handed batsman and right-arm fast-medium pace bowler, classified as a genuine all-rounder.

Jack Mason was chosen as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1898.

Jack Mason was born in Blackheath, then part of the county of Kent, one of seven brothers and three sisters.

Jack Mason attended Abbey School in Beckenham before going on to Winchester College where he was a prolific batsman, averaging 48 and 55 in his final two years at the school.

Jack Mason scored 147 and 71 and took eight wickets in one match against Eton College in 1892.

Jack Mason went on to play as an amateur for Kent County Cricket Club, making his debut in 1893 after leaving school in a County Championship match against Sussex at Foxgrove Road, Beckenham in July.

Jack Mason played regularly for Kent between 1894 and 1902, scoring over 1,000 runs each season from 1895.

Jack Mason took over the Kent captaincy in 1898 from Frank Marchant, a position he held for five seasons until his career as a solicitor took precedence, although he captained the side on the field during the final month of the 1909 season when Kent won the County Championship.

Jack Mason played in all five Test matches, his only appearances for the England team.

Jack Mason performed well at the start of the tour but endured "a long spell of bad luck" and did not live up to expectations.

Jack Mason averaged 12.90 batting and took two wickets in the Test matches, although he scored a century for the side in a first-class match against Victoria in Melbourne and averaged 39.33 with the bat in first-class matches on the tour.

Jack Mason's letters written during the tour later formed the basis of Test of Time, a book about the tour written by Jack Mason's grandson John Lazenby.

Jack Mason played in the four Kent County Championship winning sides of the years leading up to the First World War and played his final game for the County in 1914.

Jack Mason made one first-class appearance after the war, for LG Robinson's XI against the Australian Imperial Force Touring XI in 1919 at Old Buckenham Hall in Norfolk.

Jack Mason scored three successive centuries in 1904 against Yorkshire, Somerset and Essex and appeared 11 times for the Gentlemen against the Players.

Jack Mason was equally at home on slow, turning wickets and he averaged 33.27 in first-class cricket.

Jack Mason was an accomplished fast-medium paced bowler and was considered an excellent slip fielder.

Jack Mason was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the Hydrophone Service and posted first to HMS Tarlair, the service's main research and training base at Aberdour in Fife.

Jack Mason was posted to one of the Hydrophone shore stations at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight and, in 1918, promoted to Lieutenant.

Jack Mason volunteered to serve in the Royal Air Force in April 1918 but was considered too important to be spared by the Hydrophone Service which was playing a crucial role in combatting German U-boat attacks.

Jack Mason's career was as a solicitor, working at Jack Mason and Co in High Holborn in London.

Jack Mason was a member of the county's General Committee from 1919 and served as the club's president in 1938.

Jack Mason played for and was involved in the Band of Brothers club, closely associated with Kent's county team.

Jack Mason died at his home in Cooden Beach in Sussex in 1958 aged 84.