60th Anniversary of the M.C.C. Museum

In August 1945 the Club’s Arts & Library Sub-Committee agreed that the arrangements for the display and housing of the unique M.C.C. collections fell far short of the ideal. It was considered most desirable to provide additional library and gallery space in which collections could be better classified and displayed for the benefit of both Members and the public, with the dual object of creating wider interest in cricket lore and literature, and of assuring prospective donors that their generosity would be made best use of.

It was further felt that in the event of M.C.C. wishing to perpetuate the memory either of Members or of cricketers generally who had given their lives in the war, the dedication of such a building to all such British and Imperial cricketers would provide a suitable and enduring memorial of undoubted
educational and cultural value. The decision to build a gallery demonstrated the M.C.C. Committee’s sense of responsibility, as trustees of cricket
heritage, to preserve for Members and the general public at the headquarters of cricket a record of the game’s history and traditions. Such a sense of responsibility continues to this day.

This calendar contains a selection of paintings of grounds around the world, which were received from the many overseas boards and cricket bodies who wished to be associated with a memorial.

The Gallery was opened by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh in April 1953 and dedicated by the Lord Bishop of London as a memorial to cricketers of all lands who gave their lives in the two World Wars, 1914-18 and 1939-45.

60th Anniversary of the M.C.C. Museum