Gerald Brodribb

Who was Gerald Brodribb?

Dr. Arthur Gerald Norcott Brodribb was a cricket historian and archaeologist.

Born in St Leonards-on-Sea, Brodribb graduated from Oxford, where his tutor had been C.S. Lewis, and became a schoolmaster. From 1956 to 1968, he owned and ran Hydneye House, a prep school in East Sussex.

Brodribb was a descendent of the Victorian actor Sir Henry Irving and a founder member of the Cricket Society. His best known work in cricket is Next Man In which "took cricket's Laws, and re-examined them all with an eye to their quirks, oddities and exceptions". Among his other famous works are Hit for Six, a compendium of the big-hitters in cricket, and The Croucher, a biography of the early twentieth century cricketer Gilbert Jessop.

Later in his career, he took an interest in archaeology and was awarded a doctorate in 1985 for his thesis on Roman building materials. His Roman Brick and Tile remains a key work on the subject. He took a particular interest in the Classis Britannica iron-working site at Beauport Park. Although he never published anything on the subject, he was also involved in researching the Roman roads in the area, especially the road leading north from Beauport Park.