Researching Philip Whitcombe

His son Philip Arthur Whitcombe was also a first-class cricketer.

Quoted from Nick Smart, Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War, p. 331

"The son of the Bishop of Colchester, Whitcombe was educated at Winchester and was a reserve officer with the Durham Light Infantry in 1914. Transferring to the Army Service Corps, his First War service was in France.

Married in 1919, Whitcombe, a keen games player, played cricket for Essex and the army in the early 1920s. He attended the Staff College, Camberley, 1925–1926, served in India 1928–1929 and was deputy assistant general, Northern Command, 1934–1936. A staff officer at the War Office 1936–1938, he was a lieutenant colonel in 1939.

Mentioned in despatches after the campaign in France and Flanders, in which he served as deputy assistant of supplies and transport with the BEF, Whitcombe was assistant adjutant and QMG in Gibraltar 1940–1941 and brigadier i/c administration 1941–1942. Deputy adjutant and QMG with British troops in Northern Ireland 1942–1943, he was major general i/c administration Eastern Command 1943–1947

Appointed CB in 1944 and retired from the army in 1947, Whitcombe, a member of the MCC, was a JP in Wiltshire from 1948."

Whitcombe's father, Major-General Philip Sidney Whitcombe, had played some first-class cricket while serving in India, and also played for Berkshire. Philip junior was educated at Winchester, where he was a contemporary of Hubert Doggart, a future England cricketer. During the Second World War he served with the Royal Horse Artillery before going up to Christ Church, Oxford. He played in the Oxford University team from 1947 to 1949 and won a Blue three years running.

His most notable season was 1948, when he took 47 wickets at an average of 15.93. In Oxford's match against Yorkshire he bowled Len Hutton in each innings, finishing with figures of 5 for 32 and 2 for 33. In the University Match he played a large part in Oxford's innings victory: "Well-maintained length at fast-medium pace with the pavilion as background, coming from such a high delivery as that of the six feet four inches tall Whitcombe, seemed beyond interpretation by the Cambridge students, and in taking seven wickets for 51 runs he influenced the proceedings to such an extent that the other Oxford bowlers invariably checked any suggestion of easy scoring." A few days later he opened the bowling for the Gentlemen, taking the wickets of Cyril Washbrook (twice) and Denis Compton. A few days after that, playing only his second match for Middlesex, he dismissed Bill Brown and Don Bradman to leave the touring Australians 28 for 2.

Troubled by injuries, Whitcombe played no more county cricket after 1948, and after the university season ended in 1949 he played no first-class cricket until 1954, when he began playing occasionally for Free Foresters, whose president he became.

He became a shipping agent and then a sheep farmer in Surrey. While working in India as a shipping agent for P&O, he met his wife-to-be, Rosemary, daughter of Lord Clydesmuir, the last Governor of Bombay. He and Rosemary (1927–2009) had a son and a daughter.