Rony Stanyforth

By the death of Lieut.-Colonel R. T. Stanyforth in February cricket lost a great and staunch adherent. Many cricketers in all parts of the world lost a wonderful friend and companion. Rony Stanyforth was a cricketer all his days, in the Eton XI of 1911 and narrowly missing a Blue on going up to Oxford thereafter. A very well-known player in Army and Club cricket, he was invited to go to South America with Plum Warner in 1926 and so impressed his captain that he was asked to accompany G. R. Jackson, as vice-captain, to South Africa the following year. When Jackson fell ill he was appointed to lead the side. A man of strong character, he found an ideal head professional in Ernest Tyldesley, and few teams can have travelled as harmoniously as we of the MCC in 1927/8. Our first official function was a lunch in Cape Town at which we heard our captain make his first serious speech. In replying, General Smuts said, in the most graceful terms, that, whilst he expected decent sentiments from honest athletes, he was totally unprepared for oratory on the plane to which he had just listened. It was a tribute earned on every occasion upon which Stanyforth spoke. It was my good fortune to make many cricketing trips with Rony Stanyforth, to Holland, Egypt and to Germany. With his humour, warmth and fibre he was the most entertaining and convivial team-mate yet as captain, though unobtrusively, very much in command of the situation. In the affairs of cricket the same qualities made him a splendid administrator, dauntless in what he regarded as being right, whether popular or not. Wherever he went he had a most unusual quality of commanding respect as well as deep affection. It is pleasant to record that when he revisited South Africa in recent years he received a welcome which greatly moved and delighted him. Those who, as young men, travelled with him on his original visit have special cause to mourn.
Ian Peebles, The Cricketer

Wisden obituary
Lieutenant-Colonel Ronald Thomas Stanyforth, who died on February 20, aged 71, was a well-known amateur wicket-keeper. He did not get a place in the XI at Eton, nor did he gain a Blue at Oxford, but he soon gained prominence in Army cricket and in 1928 played in three matches for Yorkshire. In 1926 he toured South America with P. F. Warner's MCC team and next winter led the MCC side who toured South Africa, sharing the rubber. He took over the captaincy when illness compelled the original choice, GR Jackson, of Derbyshire, to withdraw. In the four Test matches in which he took part--he missed the last through injury--he made seven catches and brought off two stumpings. Though he achieved little in batting, Wisden described him as a capable captain and a strong and popular personality. He also toured the West Indies under the Hon. FSG Calthrope in 1929-30, but met with early injury and did not play again, W. F. Price being sent out as replacement. Altogether in first-class matches he accounted for 73 batsmen, 58 caught and 15 stumped. He was a trustee of MCC at the time of his death.

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

Only three of RT Stanyforth's 61 first-class appearances were in the County Championship, all coming for Yorkshire early in 1928, by which time he had already captained England.