Ken Farnes Killed in RAF Training Crash — Chipping Warden, October 1941

Born in Leytonstone in 1911, Farnes stood 6ft 5in and bowled with a long, looping run-up. He made his Test debut in 1934, dismissing Bradman and taking 10 wickets in the Trent Bridge Ashes Test. As a schoolmaster and an amateur, he played only when school holidays permitted, which limited his county appearances but never his impact: in 1938 he took 11/76 in the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's, considered one of the great fast-bowling displays of the inter-war period.

Farnes joined the RAFVR in 1940 and trained as a pilot in Canada under the Empire Air Training Scheme. He was commissioned on 1 September 1941 and posted to No.12 OTU at Chipping Warden, where bomber crews completed conversion to the Wellington before joining operational squadrons. Night-flying training was statistically the most dangerous phase of Bomber Command service.

Farnes had been commissioned as a Pilot Officer on 1 September 1941, having served first in the ranks and trained as a pilot in Canada. He was posted to No.12 Operational Training Unit at RAF Chipping Warden, near Banbury, where new bomber crews flew Wellingtons by night before being released to operational squadrons.

On the night of 20 October 1941 he took off on a routine night-flying exercise. The aircraft crashed almost immediately after leaving the runway, killing Farnes and several of the crew. The Air Ministry recorded the cause as 'lost control on take-off, night'. He was buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, where his headstone still carries the simple inscription 'Cricketer'.

The news travelled quickly through wartime cricket. Essex captain Tom Pearce paid tribute; Wisden's 1942 almanack noted that England had lost a man who would surely have spearheaded the post-war attack. Farnes had taken 720 first-class wickets at 21.45, including a fearsome 11/76 for The Gentlemen v The Players at Lord's in 1938, and had been part of Hammond's tour of South Africa in 1938-39.

Unusually for a fast bowler of his era, Farnes was also a published author and a teacher at Worksop College. His wartime memoir Tours and Tests was published posthumously in 1940.

“He had everything: pace, lift, hostility and the temperament of a Test bowler. England would have built her post-war attack around him.”

“Cricketer.”

Wisden's 1942 obituary ran to nearly two columns and was written by RC Robertson-Glasgow. Essex CCC held a memorial service at Chelmsford. The Royal Air Force lost more than 55,000 aircrew during the war; Farnes was one of more than a dozen first-class cricketers killed in service.