E. W. Swanton

E. W. Swanton
E. W. Swanton
Born	Ernest William Swanton; 11 February 1907 (age 119); Forest Hill, London, England
Died	22 January 2000 (aged 92); Canterbury, England
Other names	Jim Swanton
Occupation(s)	Journalist, author, cricket commentator
Years active	1924–1999
Known for	Cricket writing and broadcasting

Ernest William "Jim" Swanton (11 February 1907 – 22 January 2000) was a prominent English journalist and author, chiefly renowned for his work as a cricket writer and commentator under the pen name E. W. Swanton. He contributed extensively to The Daily Telegraph and served as a broadcaster on BBC Radio for three decades, particularly on Test Match Special, where his unique "fruity" vocal style became well known. Even after retiring in the 1970s, he occasionally penned articles until his passing in 2000.

Early life

Born in Forest Hill, south London, Swanton was the only son of William Swanton, a stockbroker, and Lillian Emily, whose father was a German merchant who had anglicized the family name from Wolters to Walters. From early childhood, he was called Jim due to his size. His father held the position of treasurer at Forest Hill cricket club. Swanton later reminisced about attending a match as an infant when W. G. Grace, then 59 years old, scored a century for London County against Forest Hill.

His education took place at Brightlands prep school (which later merged into Dulwich College Preparatory School) followed by Cranleigh School. Although neither academically nor athletically distinguished, he opted for a career in journalism after completing his schooling.

Pre-war journalism

Swanton embarked on his journalistic journey with Amalgamated Press in Fleet Street in 1924 and by 1927 had become a correspondent for the London Evening Standard, focusing on cricket and rugby coverage. His tenure reporting on Test cricket spanned almost seven decades, from 1930 to 1999. Beginning in 1934, he also contributed broadcasts to the BBC Empire Service, including live transmissions of the MCC tour to South Africa, marking the first overseas tour with live BBC radio coverage.

In 1935, Swanton established the itinerant cricket club known as Arabs. He participated in three county cricket matches representing Middlesex County Cricket Club during 1937–38, albeit with modest success. Additionally, he served as president of Sandwich Town Cricket Club for over twenty years starting in 1976.

At the request of H. S. Altham, Swanton expanded Altham's A History of Cricket to include developments after World War I, releasing an extended edition in 1938. This work was subsequently divided into two volumes in 1947, with updated editions published up until 1962.

Second World War

During the Second World War, Swanton held the rank of acting major within the Bedfordshire Yeomanry. Captured by Japanese forces during the Battle of Singapore, he endured three years as a prisoner of war forced to work on the Burma–Siam railway under severe conditions and contracted polio during captivity. A copy of the 1939 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack that he possessed helped sustain his spirits throughout this ordeal. He later detailed his experience playing cricket amid these hardships in his article "Cricket under the Japs," featured in the 1946 edition of Wisden.

Post-war career

Following the war, Swanton assumed the role of cricket correspondent for The Daily Telegraph from 1946 until 1975 and acted as editorial director of The Cricketer magazine between 1967 and 1988. He reported on seven tours to Australia but notably avoided covering Pakistan, limited his assignments in India, and refrained from reporting on South Africa after 1964 as a protest against apartheid. His writing style was marked by brevity and factual precision, standing in contrast to more literary contemporaries such as Neville Cardus and John Arlott; this straightforwardness was also evident in his radio commentaries.

A staunch traditionalist, Swanton mourned the fading presence of amateur cricketers and resisted commercial ventures like Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. He served on the MCC main committee from 1975 through 1984 and was appointed honorary life vice-president in 1989. His leadership roles included presidencies at Kent County Cricket Club (1981), the Cricket Society, and the Forty Club.

Swanton received an OBE in 1965 followed by a CBE in 1994. His autobiography, Sort of a Cricket Person, appeared in 1972, while a compilation of obituaries titled Cricketers of my Time was published in 1999. Shortly before passing away from heart failure in Canterbury, he participated as one of the voters for the year-2000 selection of Wisden's Cricketers of the Century.

To mark The Cricketers seventieth anniversary in 1991, Swanton curated a greatest eleven covering that period: Jack Hobbs, Sunil Gavaskar, Don Bradman, Gary Sobers, George Headley, Keith Miller, Alan Davidson, Godfrey Evans, Lance Gibbs, Bill O'Reilly, and Malcolm Marshall.

His impact on cricket journalism was widely recognized; Ted Dexter regarded him as "the standard by which other cricket commentators were judged." Swanton also played an early supportive role in Tony Greig's career with England.

Personal life

In February 1958, Swanton wed Ann Marion Carbutt, daughter of Reymond de Montmorency, an Eton College housemaster and widow of chartered accountant George Carbutt. The couple resided near Sandwich, Kent, enjoyed golfing at Royal St George's, and maintained a winter residence at Sandy Lane in Barbados. Ann passed away in 1998.

His experiences during wartime deepened his commitment to Anglo-Catholicism and led him to contemplate ordination within the Anglican Church. The funeral address was delivered by former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Runcie. A respected biography authored by David Rayvern Allen, published soon after Swanton's death, unveiled numerous previously undisclosed facets of his life.

Bibliography

Elusive Victory (1951)
Cricket and the Clock (1952)
Best Cricket Stories (1953)
West Indian Adventure 1953–1954 (1954)
West Indies Revisited – MCC tour 1959–1960 (1960)
A History of Cricket, Volume 2 (1962)
Cricket from All Angles (1968)
Sort of a Cricket Person (1972)
Swanton in Australia with MCC 1946–1975 (1975)
Follow On (1977)
Barclays World of Cricket (General Editor) (1980 – 2nd ed.)
As I Said at the Time – a Lifetime of Cricket (1983)
Gubby Allen – Man of Cricket (1985)
Kent Cricket – a Photographic History 1744–1984 (with C. H. Taylor) (1985)
The Essential E. W. Swanton – the 1980s Observed (1990)
Last Over – A Life in Cricket (1996)
Cricketers of My Time (1999)

External links

Cricket expert Swanton passes away (BBC News, 22 January 2000)