William Frederick Dean (3 January 1926 – 18 September 1994) was a cricketer who played one first-class match for Somerset in 1952 and whose identity remained mysterious for many years until the publication of a book in 2018.
Along with fellow Yorkshireman Malcolm Walker, he was picked by Somerset for the match against the touring Indian side at the County Ground, Taunton from 28 May 1952.
Somerset had scope to offer only one special registration contract, and it went to Walker, whose batting had failed but who had taken three wickets; Dean departed the county and never played first-class cricket again.
[4] William Frederick Dean, the correct player, was identified through contact with a surviving daughter and she supplied the authors with details and photographs.
[1] He died in a hospice in York at the age of 68 from cancer of the oesophagus and sternum brought on, his family believed, by a blow to the chest from a cricket ball in his youth.