Leslie Hancock (cricketer)

Leslie Frank Hancock OBE (25 October 1899 – 12 July 1944) was an English first-class cricketer and British Army officer.

Hancock was born at Jamnagar in British India to a British Indian Army major. He was educated in England at Cheltenham College, deciding upon the completion of his education to take a career in the military.^[1] Going up to the Royal Military College, he graduated into the Royal Engineers as a second lieutenant in July 1921,^[2] before gaining the rank of lieutenant in July 1923.^[3] He played first-class cricket twice for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1926 against Wales and Cambridge University, with both matches played at Lord's.^[4] He scored 24 runs in his two matches,^[5] in addition to taking a single wicket with his right-arm medium-fast bowling, that of Wales' Cyril Rowland.^[6]

He was granted the temporary rank of captain while serving as an adjutant with the Territorial Army in October 1929,^[7] later gaining the rank in full in July 1932.^[8] Hancock later served in the Second World War with the Royal Engineers, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.^[1] In the aftermath of the Normandy Landings in June 1944, Hancock commanded engineers constructing advanced landing grounds (ALG). While overseeing the construction of the Royal Air Force ALG B-12 at Ellon, Hancock was killed when the jeep he was travelling in struck a landmine near Maupertus-sur-Mer on 12 July.^[9] His body was buried shortly thereafter at the Bayeux war cemetery.^[10] He was survived by his wife, the actress Ellen Pollock, with whom he had one son.^[11] He was posthumously made an OBE in the 1945 New Year Honours for his services during the war.^[1]