John William Lee (1 February 1902 – 20 June 1944), generally known as Jack Lee, was an English cricketer who played for Somerset from 1925 to 1936, having played one match for Middlesex in 1923. He was an all-rounder, scoring six centuries and taking ten wickets in a match on two occasions by the end of his career. He was killed on active service with the British Army during the Second World War.
Cricket career
Early career
Lee was a Londoner and played one match in 1923 for Middlesex, where his brother, Harry, 12 years his senior, was an opening batsman and off-break bowler from 1911 to 1934. The Middlesex match was against Somerset at Taunton, and Lee failed to take a wicket with his leg-breaks and, batting at number ten, was run out without scoring. Unable to win a place in the Middlesex side, he moved to Somerset from the 1925 season, starting his career with his new county in almost identical circumstances, with just one wicket for his bowling and two scoreless innings in the match against Cambridge University at Bath. That was his only first-class match in his first two seasons at Somerset: without a residential or birth qualification, he was forced to wait for two years before he could appear in County Championship matches. While waiting, he played club cricket for the Lansdown Cricket Club in Bath. Two years after Jack Lee moved from Middlesex to Somerset, his younger brother Frank, who had made two appearances for Middlesex, made the same move: he also played for Lansdown and his qualification for Somerset proceeded two years behind Jack's.
Jack Lee was qualified for Somerset in 1927 and immediately became a regular player in the side. In his first County Championship match, he was used as an opening batsman, and he stayed at or near the top of the batting order for most of the season, moving down only when one of Somerset's amateur irregulars arrived to claim one of the opening slots. In his first season, he made 759 runs at an average of 17.25 runs per innings and a highest score of 65. He also took 41 wickets, including five for 23 in an innings in the match against Warwickshire when, in Wisden's report, "he bowled an excellent length and with some variety of pace made the ball turn quickly". In its review of Somerset's season, Wisden added that Lee had made "an encouraging start" and "may develop into a thoroughly good all-round player".
That promise was slow to develop, however. In the 1928 season, Lee made only 376 first-class runs at an average of 14.46 and took only 19 wickets. He played in only 17 of Somerset's matches, with the team often containing eight or nine amateur players. He was back as a regular in 1929, and took 59 wickets, including a new career-best of six for 57 in the match against Northamptonshire at Taunton. In that match, though, Lee batted at number eleven, and though he also opened the innings in other matches, his season's batting average in 1929 was just 12.90. There was little change in 1930, and although Wisden noted that Lee on occasion offered "batting to some purpose", he was now not used higher than number seven in the batting order, and he missed several matches in August when the amateurs were available. As a bowler in 1930, he had one outstanding match: against Essex at Colchester, he took five wickets for 38 in the first Essex innings, catching three of the other Essex batsmen, and then followed that with seven for 101, his best innings figures so far, to finish with 12 for 139 in the match, the best match figures of his career. It was perhaps significant that Somerset captain (and England off-spin bowler) Jack White was not playing in this game: in the 1930 season as a whole, White bowled 500 more overs for Somerset than Lee, who was the number two spin bowler for as long as White was in the side.