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Archie Douglas

 

 

 

 

 

Colonel Archie Philip Douglas CMG (1867-1953), one of 7 sons of Sir Robert Kennaway Douglas, and his wife Rachael Fenton, was the eldest of four brothers who played cricket for Middlesex.

 

He was born at Norwood Green, Middlesex on the 7th June 1867. Both he and the youngest of the four, Sholto, became professional soldiers (the latter fought in the Boer War, became a schoolmaster, joined up again in 1914 and was killed at Arras in France on 28th Jan 1916 serving as a Captain with the 16th Middlesex Regiment).

 

Archie went to Dulwich College - where he excelled as a batsman at cricket, heading the batting averages in 1884, his final season.  In the Dulwich XI from 1882 to 1884, he headed the batting averages in the last season, and did the same at Woolwich the next two years. On a few occasions in 1886 and 1887 he assisted Surrey, and afterwards appeared for Middlesex, the county of his birth.

 

In 1885 aged 18 he went to the Royal Military College, Woolwich, for 2 years during which he was called upon to play cricket for Surrey. Later he played for Middlesex. In 14 First-Class innings Archie scored 328 runs (three 50s, highest score 91), and he took a total of 8 wickets for 48 runs (6 for 34 in one match).

In 1887 aged 20 he was commissioned from the RMC into the Royal Artillery (the regiment with which he would normally remain for the rest of his Army service). He served in India, like much of the British Army in those days, where he played a lot of cricket, but also had a tour of duty in China during the Boxer Rebellion, c1900.

 

During the Great War, when serving as Colonel of Royal Artillery (Indian Army), he was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the C.M.G. and the Serbian Order of the White Eagle (Fourth Class), probably for events in 1914. By the end of WW1 he was in India as a Colonel in the Indian Ordnance Department

His brothers Sholto, James and Robert also played first-class cricket.

 

Finally(1) Archie, late in life, married Lilian Elizabeth Wyatt (1870-1971)(2) after 1930. She then had three surviving adult children from her first marriage. She was the granddaughter of Bishop Robert Caldwell of South India, and niece of Field Marshall Claud Jacob (WW1 General). Archie and Lilian retired to Crewkerne in Somerset where Archie joined “The Stragglers” (Somerset Cricket Club), eventually settling in Taunton at 2 Haines Hill Terrace, where he died in 1953 aged 86.

 

 

Notes:
1.  Archie had an earlier wife, Helen Dunsterville, the daughter of Colonel Knightley Stalker Dunsterville.  His marriage to Helen Dunsterville linked him to another famous military family. Helen died in 1929.  Helen’s brother, Major-General Lionel Dunsterville, was a classmate of Rudyard Kipling and served as the inspiration for the character "Stalky" in Kipling's famous novel Stalky & Co.

2.  Lilian Elizabeth Wyatt was a woman whose life spanned over a century of profound change, and she was a formidable figure in her own right long before she crossed paths with Archibald Douglas. Born in 1870, she came of age during the height of the Victorian era and eventually married John Wyatt, a man of significant standing in the British colonial administration. Through John—who served as a high-ranking official, likely within the educational services in India—Lilian navigated the elite circles of the academic and administrative world, a social landscape very similar to the one Archie had known in Simla. By the time she and Archibald wed, Lilian was a widow with the wisdom of a full lifetime behind her and three surviving adult children from her first marriage. The couple eventually retreated to the quiet elegance of **2 Haines Hill Terrace** in Taunton. While Archie spent his golden years immersed in his family’s legendary obsession with cricket—joining the local "Stragglers" club to keep the Douglas sporting flame alive—Lilian remained the steady, enduring heart of their home. Ultimately, Lilian’s story became one of incredible resilience. She didn't just witness the turn of the century; she lived to see the world transform entirely, reaching the extraordinary age of **101**. Though she buried Archibald in 1953, she continued on for nearly two more decades, finally passing away in 1971 as a centenarian who had carried the history of two centuries with her.

 

See also:
• The cricketing brothers (pdf)

 

 

 

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