John Dowie Harcombe (13 March 1883 – 19 July 1954) played first-class cricket for Somerset in seven matches stretched across the years from 1905 to 1919.[1] He was born at Cape Town in South Africa and died at Taunton, Somerset.
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | John Dowie Harcombe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1883-03-13)13 March 1883 Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 19 July 1954(1954-07-19) (aged 71) Taunton, Somerset, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm slow | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | All-rounder | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1905–19 | Somerset | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First-class debut | 19 June 1905 Somerset v Lancashire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last First-class | 10 June 1919 Somerset v Gloucestershire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive, 20 March 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Harcombe was a right-handed lower-order batsman and a right-arm slow bowler. He played for Somerset in three matches in 1905, one more in 1914 and then a final three in 1919. He had limited success both as a batsman and as a bowler. His only wickets were taken in his very first match, against Lancashire in 1905.[2] As a batsman he reached double figures only twice in a dozen innings and his highest score was 29, made batting at No 11 in his second first-class match, against Kent in 1905.[3] Harcombe settled in Kenya and played minor cricket there for the Settlers side in the 1920s and 1930s.[4]
Harcombe enlisted as a soldier with the Somerset Light Infantry in the First World War and was a sergeant when he was commissioned in 1916 as a temporary second lieutenant and transferred to the Devonshire Regiment.[5] Earlier in the same year he had been awarded the Military Medal.[6] In 1917 he was granted the rank of acting captain while serving as an adjutant to the Devonshire Regiment.[7] He was allowed to retain the rank of captain when discharged as a second lieutenant in February 1919.[8]