John Tufton, 2nd Baron Hothfield

Major John Sackville Richard Tufton, 2nd Baron Hothfield, (8 November 1873 – 21 December 1952) was a British Army officer, farmer and land owner who played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club. He served during the Second Boer War and First World War and succeeded to his title as the 2nd Baron Hothfield in 1926.

Early life Tufton was born in November 1873 at Hothfield Place near Ashford in Kent. He was the eldest son of Henry Tufton, 1st Baron Hothfield and his wife Alice and was educated at Eton College between 1887 and 1892. He did not play cricket in the school XI but was a keen sportsman and came from a family with a "strong cricketing tradition" stretching back 150 years, his father having been President of Kent County Cricket Club in 1877.

Army career On leaving school in 1892, Tufton was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion of The Royal Sussex Regiment, a militia unit. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1893 before applying to join the regular army in 1894, reverting to the rank of second lieutenant in the 1st Life Guards. He resigned his commission in 1896.

Tufton rejoined the Royal Sussex Regiment as a lieutenant in March 1900 during the Second Boer War, the first in which militia regiments were allowed to fight overseas. He was promoted to captain on 18 August 1900 and saw active service in South Africa in reserve positions in Orange Free State and Transvaal. For his service in the war, he was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with five clasps. He moved with the battalion to Saint Helena to guard prisoners of war before returning to the Southampton on the SS Dominion in September 1902.

Following the war, the 3rd Royal Sussex became a reserve battalion in 1908 and Tufton was appointed Major, serving at the battalion's depot at Chichester. At the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered for active service, moving with the battalion to Dover initially and then to France in February 1915 where he was appointed Assistant Provost Marshal (APM) attached to 6th Division headquarters with the rank of major. He served throughout the war, the division seeing action on the Western Front from the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915 through to the Hundred Days Offensive and attacks on the Hindenburg Line in 1918. He was on the General Committee at Kent County Cricket Club between 1897 and 1909 and then again in 1914 and played club cricket regularly.

He continued to play club cricket until the 1914 season including Free Foresters, I Zingari and Band of Brothers, closely associated with Kent.

Family life As well as playing cricket, Tufton was a keen lawn tennis player, considered one of the best in the House of Lords. Following the death of his first wife in 1935 he married Sybil Augusta Sant.