Jack Bryan

John Lindsay Bryan (26 May 1896 – 23 April 1985) was an English schoolteacher and cricketer who played for Cambridge University and Kent County Cricket Club. Bryan served in the British Army in both World War I and World War II and won the Military Cross in 1918.

He played for Kent alongside two of his brothers and toured Australia with the England cricket team in 1924/25. He was named as one of Wisden's five Cricketers of the Year in 1922.

Early life Bryan was born in Beckenham in Kent, the oldest son of Lindsay and Emily Bryan. His father was a solicitor. Bryan attended St Andrews' Preparatory School in Eastbourne where he captained the school Cricket XI, before winning an academic scholarship to Rugby School in 1911. He captained the Rugby Cricket XI in August 1914 and opened the batting for Lord's Schools against the Rest with George Whitehead who went on the play two matches for Kent later the same month.

Bryan also played rugby at school and represented Rugby in racquets. He was described by Wisden as "one among many brilliant public school cricketers". He was a member of the Officers' Training Corps at Rugby. He rejoined the HAC in January 1915 in London but in February was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2/5th Manchester Regiment,

After training on a machine gun course, he served at Gallipoli from September 1915 as Machine-Gun Officer of the 5th Manchester's until he was evacuated in October 1915 suffering from jaundice. The Manchester's moved to Egypt after their withdrawal from Gallipoli and Bryan served in the 127th Brigade Machine Gun Company at Abu Mena and the Suez Canal. He helped protect the railway built from El Qantara, Egypt to El Arish as part of the preparations for the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. He made his first-class cricket debut for LG Robinson's XI against the Australian Imperial Force Touring XI at Old Buckenham Hall Cricket Ground in Norfolk in May 1919 before making his Kent First XI debut towards the end of August against Lancashire at the Bat and Ball Ground in Gravesend. He scored 1,858 runs at an average of 50.21 including five centuries, three for Cambridge and two for Kent.

Bryan died after a short illness at Eastbourne in 1985 aged 88, at the time the oldest living Kent player and the last survivor of the Cambridge team of 1922 and the England touring team of 1924/25.