FRANKLIN, Walter Bell
Walter Bell Franklin was born at Upper Norwood, Surrey on 16 August 1891, son of Arthur Thomas Franklin, a quantity surveyor, and his wife Annie Caroline née Bell, who married at Camberwell in 1889. Walter was educated at Kensington House School, Bournemouth and at Repton, where he represented the school at cricket. Franklin went on to make his cricket debut for Buckinghamshire against Berkshire in the 1911 Minor Counties Championship and in the same season made his first-class debut for Cambridge University gaining his Blue the following year. In 1914, Franklin made his debut for the MCC but later in the year county cricket was cancelled due to the First World War. He served during the war and was mentioned in dispatches in July 1917 when promoted to temporary Captain. After demobilisation he returned to play for Buckinghamshire and further first-class appearances followed for the MCC, making a total of twenty-nine appearances, the last against Kent in 1933. He finally retired from county cricket in 1946 and came to live at Knodishall Place, Suffolk. A member of the Ipswich Art Club 1959-1967, an artist in oil and exhibited regularly from Knodishall, in 1958 'A Street in Malcesine' and 'St Paul Alpes Maritimes', in 1959 'Paul's Wharf', in 1960 'The Haunted Pool, Knodishall' and 'Fiesta', in 1961 'The Preparation' and 'Positano, Italy', in 1963 'Nubian Mother', in 1964 'Spring in Suffolk' with his last exhibit in 1967 'Still Life'. He married at Kensington, London in 1938, Janice Mary Partridge (1911-2002) and had two children Jonathan and Virginia. Walter Bell Franklin died of a heart attack while playing croquet at Knodishall on 5 March 1968.