The Twelfth Man 2018

15 Sir Lawrence Byford. FORMER Yokshire President and Chairman, Sir Lawrence Byford, CBE, QPM, LLD, DL, died in February at the age of 92. Sir Lawrence joined the West Riding of Yorkshire Police Force in 1947 and rose through the ranks to become Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Police in 1983, serving in the post until his retirement in 1987. Both Sir Lawrence and his wife, Muriel, were among the keenest of Yorkshire’s members and had been married for over 67 years. Following the death of their distinguished President, Sir Leonard Hutton, in September 1990, Yorkshire nominated Sir Lawrence to succeed him and he was voted in by an overwhelming majority at the Club’s annual general meeting the following February. A couple of days later, a meeting of the general committee also appointed him as Chairman to succeed Brian Walsh who had made it known he did not wish to stand again. Sir Lawrence then served as Chairman until 1998 and he stayed on as President for a year after that. He made an immediate impression on the members, telling them that he had no intention of being a “hands off” President, and he was as good as his word, helping to improve the Club’s difficult financial situation and also ending Yorkshire’s policy of playing only those cricketers born within the county. This change of direction rather surprisingly brought no revolt among the members who were beginning to realise that their team were playing with one hand tied behind their back as all other counties were benefiting from setting on top overseas players. The opening up of the boundaries led to India’s young superstar, Sachin Tendulkar, becoming Yorkshire’s first overseas player soon after the start of the 1992 season. Australian fast bowler, Craig McDermott, had initially been given a three-year contract from 1992 but he pulled out of the deal because of injury and it was while Sir Lawrence was on Yorkshire’s pre-season tour of South Africa that he became actively involved in bringing Tendulkar to Headingley instead. After joining the Police service, Sir Lawrence advanced to become Divisional Commander of the Huddersfield Division in 1968. Most of his service during that period was in the CID investigating serious crime, including homicides and complex frauds.