A Tribute to David Buckingham – Ken Siddle

A Tribute to David Buckingham

Ken Siddle

The following tribute to David Buckingham was delivered by Ken Siddle, the Senior Treasurer of the Cambridge University Cricket Club and a Fellow of Churchill College (as Professor (Emeritus) of Molecular Endocrinology), at David’s funeral on 1 March 2021. I want to talk about David’s passion for the game of cricket, a passion that runs as a continuous thread throughout his life, and to which I owe almost 40 years of precious friendship with the loveliest man you could wish to know.

He was born in Pymble, a suburb of Sydney, and like all good Australians was introduced to cricket at an early age. His skills were soon recognised and he played for his prep school and then Barker College for whom he took a hat-trick in a senior game against Waverley College in 1947 (he proudly retained the match ball with its commemorative engraved plaque). His cricket skills were further honed alongside those in chemistry at the University of Sydney, where he won what he always liked to refer to as ‘my Blue’.

When he came to Cambridge to study for a PhD he played in a couple of trial games during his first summer but did not represent the University in matches of any consequence that year. I don’t know whether it was pressure of work or competition for places that kept him out of the first XI. In any event, he made his first-class debut for Cambridge the following season, 1955, playing four matches against the might of Surrey, Yorkshire, Essex and Middlesex. At the end of that summer, having completed his PhD in express time, he swapped light Blue for dark and took up a research fellowship at ‘the other place’. As far as I can see he did not actually play for Oxford University – he was after all no longer a student –but he certainly engaged with OUCC and soon became its Treasurer.

For several years he turned out for the Free Foresters, an itinerant club made up largely of former Oxbridge players, whose annual matches against the ancient Universities were at that time accorded ‘first class’ status. With the Foresters he played several times in The Parks as well as returning to Fenner’s. David was primarily an opening batsman and (by this time) only an occasional off-break bowler – in his last first-class game in 1960 he opened the batting with Henry Blofeld, a name that will be known to some ‘dear old things’ from his colourful cricket commentaries of later years. His first-class record of 349 runs in 10matches (with highest scores of 52 not out for Cambridge University and 61 for Free Foresters) may appear modest, but he played in a golden age of University cricket, with and against at least eight past and future England captains (Norman Yardley, George Mann, Peter May, Ted Dexter, Tony Lewis, Ray Illingworth, Brian Close and MJK Smith), one captain of Australia (Ian Craig) and many other great England test players (including Fred Trueman, Willie Watson, Bob Appleyard, Jim Laker, Tony Lock, Trevor Bailey, Doug Insole, Bill Edrich, Freddie Brown, Alan Smith and Bob Barber). He was never one to brag about his playing days, but could sometimes be persuaded to reminisce about facing Fred Trueman in his pomp, and would be quick to remind his listeners, with a characteristic twinkle in his eye, that Fred did not get him out!

When David returned to Cambridge in 1969 as Professor of Chemistry, his name soon appeared again in CUCC papers. The Treasurer at that time, Jack Davies (himself a legend of University cricket, who at Fenner’s in 1934 had bowled the immortal Donald Bradman for a duck), recorded in the minutes of the 1974 AGM that ‘he was hoping to hand over to a successor during this tour of duty and an approach was being made to Professor Buckingham, formerly a treasurer of OUCC but now resident in Cambridge.’ And so in 1977 David succeeded Jack as Senior Treasurer of CUCC, becoming the only person to hold that office in both Oxford and Cambridge. We should note that the Senior Treasurer is the Officer responsible to the University for the overall conduct of the Club and not just its finances. David served with two Club Presidents, Sir Derek Bowett (President of Queens’) and Sir John (later Lord) Butterfield (Master of Downing). And then when John Butterfield stood down in 1990, David was himself elected President of CUCC – a singular honour that undoubtedly meant a great deal to him (and I succeeded him as Senior Treasurer).

David served as President for an unprecedented 19 years, guiding Cambridge cricket with enormous enthusiasm and calm authority, and earning the respect and affection of players and University colleagues alike. He was a most courteous and gracious host on formal occasions, often in Pembroke College, and an assured and eloquent figurehead when representing the Club at Lord’s. He cared passionately about Cambridge cricket and its traditions while recognising the challenges faced by the Club if it was to retain first-class status, and the need to move with the times. He oversaw many changes, not least our transition to one of six national university centres of excellence, alongside the sale of a piece of Fenner’s ground to fund the building of an indoor cricket school, a sensitive project that he guided with great tact.

As he approached 80 (albeit a very young 80!) David expressed a desire to step down as President and in 2009 he handed over to Roger Knight (an Old Blue and former Chief Executive of MCC). He retained a keen interest in the Club however, and we continued to see him at Fenner’s every summer – somehow the route from Lensfield Road to Pembroke College unerringly took him that way – and he seldom missed the Varsity Match at Lord’s. It goes without saying that his wisdom, enthusiasm and friendship will be greatly missed but we intend that he will be commemorated at Fenner’s in due course. I shall always picture him greeting me with his broad smile and that twinkle in his eye.

In the Long Room at Lord’s Receiving a presentation in 2009 at Fenner’s from Ted Dexter, to mark David Buckingham’s retirement as President of the Cambridge University Cricket Club