Eric Bickmore

Arthur Frederic Bickmore (19 May 1899 – 18 March 1979), known as Eric Bickmore, was an English school teacher and cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club and Oxford University between 1919 and 1929.

Bickmore was born in Tonbridge in Kent, the son of Arthur and Lilian Bickmore. His father, an Oxford graduate, had founded Yardley Court, the prep school for Tonbridge School, in 1898 and was Headmaster, running the school alongside his wife. Bickmore attended the school but won a scholarship to Clifton College where he was in the Cricket XI for four years and captain in his final year at school. He served in the school Officer Training Corps during the early years of World War I.

Bickmore enlisted in January 1917 in the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) as a Private. He was allocated to the Army Reserve and applied for the Officer Cadet School. He was mobilised in December 1917 and commissioned as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the RFA in June 1918.

He was posted to the 52nd Division in France in August 1918, joining the Divisional Ammunition Column taking loads of ammunition towards the front line. He served during the Hundred Days Offensive and the Advance to the Hindenburg Line until the Armistice in November 1918. He left the army at the end of January 1918 with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.