Giles Baring

Amyas Evelyn Giles Baring (21 January 1910 – 29 August 1986), known as Giles Baring, was an English first-class cricketer, who was mostly associated as a fast bowler with Hampshire before the Second World War.

Early life and education A member of the Baring family of Barings Bank, he was born in Roehampton on 21 January 1910. He was the third son of Lieutenant Colonel The Hon. Guy Victor Baring, a Member of Parliament for Winchester and a soldier in the Coldstream Guards. He had four brothers, Oliver Hugh (1904–1908), Simon Alexander Vivian (1905–1962), Aubrey George Adeane (1912–1987), and Esmond Charles (1914–1963), and one sister, Olivia Constance Leonora (1908–1975). From there, he matriculated to Magdalene College, Cambridge. During his first two years at Cambridge, he did little from a cricketing perspective, though later in his second year he had a trial for Cambridge University Cricket Club, making his debut in first-class cricket against Somerset at Fenner's. In 1931, he made a second first-class appearance for the university against the touring New Zealanders. He was kept out of the Cambridge eleven largely by the presence of Ken Farnes. These would remain the best innings figures by a Hampshire bowler until bettered by Bob Cottam in 1965. With Baron Tennyson playing less regularly for Hampshire, Baring captained Hampshire on seven occasions during the 1931 season, being one of five captains used that season. Alongside playing for Hampshire, Baring also appeared for the Gentlemen in the end of season Gentlemen v Players match at Folkestone. In the 1939 season, he also played for the Free Foresters against Oxford University. For Hampshire, he played 62 first-class matches, taking 176 wickets at an average of 27.48. As a tailend batsman, he scored 664 runs at a batting average of 8.73, but never made a score over fifty. the couple had one daughter, Claire Leonora Baring, born 29 February 1936. She later married Peter Alistair Ward. By his daughter, Baring had three grandchildren, amongst whom were the actresses Rachel Ward and Tracy Worcester. He would divorce Mona in 1949, and remarried in May of the same year to Peggy Michell Gaskell, with the couple having two sons.

Following his first-class cricket career, Baring concentrated on his business interests, which included cement production and the import of goods from West Africa. He later lost his driving licence and was fined £50 in 1959, when he was found at West Meon to be drunk while in control of a motor vehicle, to such an extent as to be incapable of controlling it. In the same year, he was involved in a divorce case where he was ordered to pay £2000 to the husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair, which was said to have "crippled him" financially. Baring died in hospital in Newcastle on 29 August 1986. He was buried at St John the Evangelist Church in Winchester.