High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Walter Reginald Hammond, known as Wally Hammond (19 June 1903 1 July 1965), was an English Test cricketer, who played for Gloucestershire in a career lasting from 1920 to 1951. Beginning his career as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed captain of England. Primarily a middle-order batsman, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack described him in his obituary as one of the four best batsmen in the history of cricket. He was considered to be the best English batsman of the 1930s by commentators and those with whom he played; they also said that he was one of the best slip fielders there had been. Hammond bowled at fast-medium pace and contemporaries believed that if he had been a less reluctant bowler, he could have achieved even more with the ball than he did.