Christopher Heseltine

Heseltine was an officer in the British Army, initially serving as a volunteer in the 5th (City of London) Battalion.

With the beginning of the Second Boer War in 1899, he was commissioned into the regular army and went to South Africa with the Imperial Yeomanry; this essentially ended his first-class cricket career, with the exception of a few matches following the conflict.

The son of the painter and art collector John Postle Heseltine, he was born at South Kensington in November 1869.

[13] He next played for Hampshire in the 1901 County Championship, taking his seventh and final five wicket haul during that season.

Wisden noted how by "fully utilising his height, he brought the ball over at the extreme extent of his arm with deadly effect at times", whilst commenting that at occasion "he was inconsistent and required careful nursing because apt to tire".

[24] With the start of the Second Boer War in 1899, he joined the Imperial Yeomanry and gained a commission into the regular army as a lieutenant in February 1900,[25] leaving that same month for service in South Africa.

[26] His participation in the war was noted as a reason for the weak Hampshire side of 1900, with several of their players serving in South Africa.

[27] After completing his service with the yeomanry, he returned to the City of London Regiment as a volunteer and resumed his rank of major.

[2] For his service in the war, he was decorated by France with the Legion of Honour in November 1920,[34] and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

[35] Following his military service, Heseltine had no paid employment and lived his life in a manner befitting of a gentleman at Walhampton in the New Forest.

He was master of the New Forest Hounds, a post he was appointed to in 1899, but his service in the Second Boer War rendered his mastership a short one.

[36] Heseltine was appointed a deputy lieutenant for Hampshire in January 1925,[37] in addition to serving as a justice of the peace for the county.

[33] His was survived by his wife, Ethel, whom he married in 1923, and their son, also called Christopher, who played minor cricket matches for Hampshire during the Second World War.