Alan Barber

Alan Theodore Barber (17 June 1905 – 10 March 1985) was an English amateur first-class cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1929 to 1930.

He also played for Oxford University, and appeared in a total of 70 first-class matches.

Barber was born in Ecclesall, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, one of the five children of Bertram Tizley Barber, of Palmer's Green, Middlesex, a partner in Turnbull Gibson & Co, ship and insurance brokers in the City of London, by his wife Kathleen Harper.

Barber was educated at Shrewsbury School and The Queen's College, Oxford.

Alan married Dorothy Elizabeth Shaw (born 1906), a daughter of Thomas Shaw of High Ercall, Shropshire, by his wife Elizabeth Gardner Oakley, a sister of the renown footballer William John Oakley (1873-1934), Captain of the England football team and joint head-master of Ludgrove School (then at Cockfosters Hertfordshire).

By his wife Dorothy he had issue including:

Barber played in 27 cricket matches for Oxford University between 1927 and 1929, and in 42 for Yorkshire.

Barber was captain of Oxford in 1929 and of Yorkshire in 1930, and was awarded his county cap the same season.

He was a double blue in golf and cricket.

He scored two hundreds, both in 1929: 119 against Nottinghamshire for Oxford, and 100 for Yorkshire against an England XI a few weeks later.

He scored 2,261 runs, at an average of 23.30, took 52 catches, and bowled one maiden over.

After one year as Yorkshire's captain, in which he brought order to the team and prepared the way for Yorkshire's dominance in the 1930s, Barber left cricket in his mid-twenties to pursue a career in teaching.

In Eton Fives Barber won the Kinnaird Cup in 1934 and in 1936, together with team-mate Desmond Backhouse.

"After the war he played briefly with Charlie Sheepshanks in a partnership which displayed, more than any other perhaps, the skills and beauty of the game. He was a very fine player until well into his fifties" (Eton Fives Association, Obituary of Alan Barber).

He was headmaster of Ludgrove School from 1937 to 1973, of which his wife's maternal uncle the renown footballer William John Oakley (1873-1934), had previously served as joint head-master.

In 1950 Barber became chairman of the Eton Fives Association, having replaced John Peterson who had become Headmaster of Shrewsbury School.

In 1973 he became president of the EFA, replacing Lord Hume, former Prime Minister and Old Ludgrovian.

"While recognising that wider interest was beneficial, even vital, to the game, he, conservative to some, was determined that Eton Fives should avoid the pitfalls into which so many other sports had fallen and that the spirit of the game should far outweigh the confines of petty legislation" (Eton Fives Association, Obituary of Alan Barber).

He died, aged 79, at Ludgrove, Wokingham, Berkshire, England, in March 1985.