Hubert Doggart
Public school headmaster, first-class cricketer, president of MCC and rare sporting all-rounder
HUBERT DOGGART, who has died aged 92, was headmaster of King’s School, Bruton from 1972 to 1985; as a young man he had made his mark as a games player of rare talent and versatility. In his last year at Cambridge, 1949-50, Doggart captained the university at cricket, soccer, squash and racquets. In addition, he gained another half-blue for rugby fives.
As a cricketer he was selected in May 1950 to lead The Rest against England in the Test Trial at Bradford, suggesting that he was viewed as a potential captain of England.
In the event Jim Laker took eight wickets for two runs, as The Rest were skittled out for 27. Doggart’s only reward was a lengthy epistle from EW Swanton detailing his errors.
Nevertheless, he played for England in the first two Tests against the West Indies that summer. Along with most England batsmen he was unable to master the spin bowling of Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin. Nevertheless, with scores of 29, 22, 0 and 25, he seemed close to establishing himself in the England side.
After the second Test, Doggart ran into a rich vein of form, scoring a dazzling 159 not out for Cambridge against Gloucestershire at Bristol, an innings in which he amazed the left-arm spinner Sam Cook by continually sweeping him against the spin off the middle stump.
Even so, Doggart was dropped from the Test side and never played for England again. Somehow in that crowded summer of 1950 he managed to obtain a Second in History.
Self-discipline was never lacking. Moreover, along with his fellow Cambridge cricketers David Sheppard and John Dewes, Doggart was ever conscious of Christian obligation.
In September 1950 he began teaching at his old school, Winchester, effectively turning his back on cricketing stardom. Thenceforward his appearances for Sussex would be limited to the school holidays.
The clarion voice that had once echoed across Fenner’s, where his calls while batting were said to have caused many a run-out on adjoining pitches, now sounded with equal power in the classroom.
Behind Doggart’s vigorous and extrovert manner, however, lay a generous spirit, eager to praise not merely sporting triumphs, but any accomplishment that reflected an enthusiasm equal to his own. He was a housemaster at Winchester for eight years, before taking up the headmastership at King’s School, Bruton, an institution dating back to 1519. By the 1970s, however, its future appeared uncertain. Doggart’s dynamism, confidence and panache helped to transform the situation. The governors raised the fees and the school embarked upon a major building programme.
Doggart’s prestige and contacts proved invaluable, both in fundraising and in persuading prep-school masters to steer boys towards Bruton.
Within the school his unquenchable energy spilled into every activity – academic, theatrical, musical and military no less than sporting. And when he took a year off in 1981-82, to serve as president of MCC, he was able to promote the school’s interests on a wider stage.
With his wife Sue he dispensed robust hospitality to all comers. However, his enthusiasm for charades could be alarming: he was a man capable of imposing such fiendish acting challenges as “the Inner London Education Authority”.
George Hubert Graham Doggart was born in Earl’s Court on July 18 1925 into a formidable sporting heritage. His father, Graham Doggart, won four England amateur caps at soccer, and in 1923 captained the full England side in a friendly against Belgium.
Hubert had a younger brother, Peter, another excellent games player, who also played for Sussex, but who died in 1965. Both boys were sent to Winchester, where Hubert became captain of cricket, soccer and racquets. The war set a limit on travel to sporting fixtures. Nevertheless, in 1943, with JB Thursfield, he won the public school racquets doubles championship.
Doggart then joined the Army, and in 1944 carried off the Sword of Honour at Mons. Commissioned into the Coldstream Guards, he served in northwest Europe, before being posted to 6th Guards Brigade HQ. He remained in the Army until 1947.
Doggart was thus 22 when he went up to King’s College, Cambridge. He gained his first Blue in December 1947 when he scored the second goal in Cambridge’s 2-0 defeat of Oxford at soccer.
In May 1948, at Fenner’s, he made a sensational debut in first-class cricket, scoring 215 not out against a Lancashire side that included two Test bowlers.
Unexpectedly, Cambridge lost at Lord’s that year, and in December 1948, Doggart was again on the losing side as Oxford squeaked home 5-4 in the Varsity soccer match at White Hart Lane.
But in the summer of 1949 the triumphs resumed, as Doggart (219 not out) and Dewes (204 not out) shared an unbroken partnership of 429 against Essex, then the highest second-wicket stand in English domestic cricket. In June Doggart again attracted attention with a brilliant 166 against MCC at Lord’s.
Cambridge won the Varsity match in 1949, and Doggart would certainly have wished it to be remembered that in Oxford’s second innings he took five for 67 with his off-breaks.
In 1950 he captained perhaps the strongest batting side ever seen in Oxford and Cambridge cricket, the order beginning JG Dewes, DS Sheppard, GHG Doggart and PBH May. In a rain-interrupted Varsity match, however, Cambridge were unable to force a victory.
At Winchester Doggart settled in as teacher of one of the junior forms, and as master in charge of cricket. With such brilliant schoolboy cricketers as the Nawab of Pataudi and Richard Jefferson available in the later 1950s, the XI for five years never lost against another school.
Doggart’s essentially kindly nature was evident not only in his celebration of the cricketing stars, but in his encouragement of lesser players.
In 1954 he took the summer off to captain Sussex. Results were disappointing as the county slipped to ninth place, from second in 1953. Doggart himself scored only one century in the championship that season. He did, however, make 101 when Sussex played Pakistan, and hit a century in each innings in the game against Oxford University.
His last appearance for Sussex was in 1961. Altogether he played 210 first-class matches (155 for Sussex), and in 347 innings scored 10,054 runs (including 20 centuries) at an average of 31.51. In addition he claimed 60 wickets at 34.28 apiece, and took 197 catches.
From 1964 to 1975 Doggart was the Headmaster’s Conference representative on the National Cricket Association, and in 1965 he succeeded Freddy Brown as president of the English Schools Cricket Association, a post he held for 35 years.
He served on the Cricket Council, and after his presidency of MCC became treasurer from 1987 to 1992.
In 1967 Doggart edited The Heart of Cricket, a memoir of HS Altham. With John Woodcock he produced Lord Be Praised (1988), in celebration of MCC’S bi-centenary the previous year. Oxford and Cambridge Cricket (1989) was co-authored with George Chesterton. Cricket’s Bounty (2014), a collection of his writings, included some verse.
On retiring from King’s School the Doggarts lived in Chichester, where he was involved with the cathedral.
Hubert Doggart was appointed OBE in 1993. He married Susan Beattie in 1960; they had a son (another Cambridge cricket Blue) and two daughters, one of whom predeceased him.
Hubert Doggart, born July 18 1925, died February 16 2018