Alec Pearce

Thomas Alexander Pearce (18 December 1910 – 11 August 1982), known as Alec Pearce, was an English cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club and for Hong Kong in Interport matches. He subsequently served as president of both clubs.

Early life and family Pearce was born in Hong Kong in 1910, the son of Thomas Ernest Pearce, a businessman in the then British colony. His grandfather, the Reverend TW Pearce, was a missionary in the colony and Pearce's father worked for J. D. Hutchison & Co, a trading company, from 1903 before purchasing a controlling share in the company in 1917. TE Pearce played cricket for the colony in Interport matches against Shanghai and Malaya and was described as one of the strengths of the team between the wars.

Pearce was educated at Charterhouse School, where he was in the school cricket XI for three years. He was described as "one of the best bats Charterhouse have had for some time" and as a "natural games-player" who played rackets for Charterhouse. Pearce played regularly for the county in 1931 and 1932 and won his county cap in the later season, scoring 581 runs at a batting average of 24.13 during the season, including a score of 83 at Tunbridge Wells against Northants as part of a partnership of 194 runs with Les Ames which was described as "brilliant cricket". He returned to England in 1946, scoring his only first-class century during the 1946 season.

Pearce lived at Hawkhurst in retirement and died in hospital at Tunbridge Wells in August 1982 aged 71. After his death Pearce's widow, Nina, presented a set of framed photographs of every capped Kent player to the club in his memory. These, which continue to be added to, hang in the Pavilion at the St Lawrence Ground, Kent's Canterbury headquarters. The couple had two daughters.