George Abell

Sir George Edmond Brackenbury Abell (22 June 1904 – 11 January 1989) was an English civil servant and cricketer. Although his civil service career was the more significant, he was an excellent all-round sportsman, who won Blues for Oxford at cricket, rugby union and hockey as well as playing county cricket for Worcestershire. He was born in Worcester, and died at the age of 84 in Ramsbury, Wiltshire. Civil service career Abell was educated at Marlborough College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1928 he entered the Indian Civil Service and was posted to the Punjab. He was Private Secretary to the Governor of the Punjab 1941–43 and then private secretary to the last two viceroys of India, Lord Wavell and Lord Mountbatten. He was appointed OBE in 1943, and CIE in the 1946 New Year Honours. In 1947, shortly before Indian independence, he was knighted KCIE. He returned to the United Kingdom and was a director of the Bank of England 1952–64 and First Civil Service Commissioner 1964–67. Cricketing career Abell's first-class debut came for Worcestershire against Essex at Worcester in August 1923; he had a quiet match, claiming no dismissals and scoring 1 and 6 not out. Indeed, in three further appearances that season he appeared on the scorecard only once as a fielder: when he caught Gloucestershire captain Philip Williams off the bowling of Fred Root. Abell scored 50 in the second innings of this game, the only half-century he would make for nearly two years. The 1924 season saw Abell play 12 first-class matches: seven for Oxford University and five for Worcestershire. His batting produced nothing of note (his highest score that season was just 23*) but he held 12 catches and made two stumpings. The following year, however, he passed 500 runs for the only time in his career, this total including 124 for Worcestershire against Sussex. He also claimed 17 dismissals. From 1926 until 1928 he performed poorly with the bat, 50 being his highest score in 31 innings, but he continued to pick up victims behind the stumps.