Jack Harrow: D’Artagnan of Defence
Martin Chandler |Published: 2025
Pages: 150
Author: Gault, Adrian
Publisher: Mitcham Cricket Club
Rating: 3 stars
To be honest it’s probably a bit of a stretch to categorise this one as a cricket book, but after much thought I’ve concluded it should just sneak in. It is a biography of a sportsman, but what counts against its categorisation as a cricket book is that its subject, Jack Harrow, found fame as a footballer with Chelsea and, twice, England.
But on the other hand the book is published by Mitcham Cricket Club, and there is a chapter that deals with the years over which local man Harrow played for the club. What clinched it though is that the foreword to the book is contributed by Alec Stewart, who may be a lifelong Chelsea fan, but is still a part of the fabric of the game of cricket.
It helps too that author Adrian Gault is a man whose work I am familiar with and who I knew, if nothing else, would have thoroughly researched his subject. As to our national winter game I have always been a keen follower of it, but do not make a habit of reading about football and footballers. I have read a biography of my childhood hero, Robin Friday, but other than that the only two I have read were of George Best and Jimmy Greaves, so men rather better known than Jack Harrow.
Friday, Best and Greaves have one thing in common, in that all lived life to the full and therefore provide a biographer with vast amounts of material. Many footballers however, especially in days of yore when in terms of earning potential they were little more than skilled blue collar workers, did little of note outside their playing careers.
And therein lies the problem for me, in that an account of a long distant football match simply does not lend itself to a detailed analysis in the way that a Test match does. For example I must have read dozens of accounts of the famous Oval Test of 1926, all of which I have thoroughly enjoyed, and that familiarity with the way events unfolded when I came to read the latest retelling of that gripping story, last autumn in Stephen Brenkley’s A Striking Summer. On the other hand I have only ever once tried to read an account of the momentous 1966 World Cup final, and I didn’t get very far with that.
But I digress. Returning to the subject of Jack Harrow he was a defender, noted for his tough tackling. He made his Chelsea first team bow in 1911 and his playing days, for much of which he was club captain, ended in 1926. During his career Chelsea were losing FA Cup Finalists in 1915, and had a best finish of third in the old First Division.
Public records such as censuses are a valuable resource in investigating the lives of men like Jack Harrow, but the only way of putting flesh on those bones is with the assistance of press reports of which, of course, there are many and, nowadays, they are not difficult to source. In Harrow’s case there were two other important sources, those being the records of Mitcham Cricket Club and, most valuable of all, descendants with some knowledge of their forebear and a willingness to help.
I have to say I enjoyed reading about Jack Harrow’s life. I am not so sure that having done so I would derive as much pleasure from reading about his contemporaries, but Harrow’s is an interesting story particularly the details of the injury that ended his playing career and what his life outside football involved.
Like all books of this nature this is not one from which anyone seeks to make any money, and the proceeds of the book over and above its production costs will in part go to the coffers of the famous old Mitcham club, and in part to restoring Harrow’s grave, so another reason to buy the book. Those interested in purchasing can email mitchamcricketclub@gmail.com. The cost is £18.
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