| Charles Luther | |
| Fullname: | Alan Charles Grenville Luther |
| Birth Date: | 17 September 1880 |
| Birth Place: | Kensington, London, England |
| Death Place: | Staplemead, Curland, Somerset, England |
| Batting: | Right-handed |
| Club1: | Sussex |
| Year1: | 1908 |
| Columns: | 1 |
| Column1: | First-class |
| Matches1: | 17 |
| Runs1: | 383 |
| Bat Avg1: | 16.65 |
| 100S/50S1: | 0/0 |
| Top Score1: | 42 |
| Hidedeliveries: | true |
| Catches/Stumpings1: | 7/0 |
| Date: | 3 January |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Source: | http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/16691.html Cricinfo |
Alan Charles Grenville Luther MC (17 September 1880 – 23 June 1961) was an English soldier and cricketer.
Educated at Rugby, where he appeared in the First XI in 1897 and 1898,[1] Luther did his military training at Sandhurst. He joined the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and fought in the Second Boer War.[2] He was promoted to the rank of captain. In August 1914, during the Battle of Le Cateau in the First World War, whilst lying wounded in no-man's-land, Luther was discovered by a German soldier who had lived in England before the war and appreciated the game of cricket; he took Luther to Le Cateau for treatment.[3] Luther remained a prisoner of war until 1918. In 1920, promoted to major, he was awarded the Military Cross for valour at Le Cateau.[4]
Luther played cricket at various levels until his late forties, mostly as a batsman, including nine first-class matches for Sussex in 1908 and eight for MCC from 1908 to 1911. His highest first-class score was 42, for MCC against Leicestershire in 1909.[5] He played Minor Counties cricket for Berkshire in 1926 and 1927, scoring 101 out of a team total of 194 against Hertfordshire in 1927.[6]
Luther retired from the army in the early 1920s.[4] After a few years farming in South Africa, he returned to England and served as secretary of Berkshire County Cricket Club and assistant secretary of Surrey.[1] At The Oval in the late 1920s, where he was a coach for Surrey, he organized the net sessions for young club members; Ronald Mason remembers him as "tall and willowy with a shock of grey hair on a handsome head that swayed engagingly as he walked".[7]
During World War II, Luther served with the Home Guard, based at Canonteign in Devon. After a few more years in South Africa after the war, he returned to live the rest of his life near Taunton in Somerset.[4]
Luther was also a prominent rackets player.[1] He married Cecily Noel, the sister of a fellow officer from the Yorkshire Light Infantry, in London in July 1921. They had one son.[4]