by PJ Lennon, Last Word on Cricket
On the day that Colin Ronald Michael Atkinson CBE was born in Thornaby, Yorkshire on 23 July 1931, the singer Gene Austin was a famous name and his compositions “Love Letters in The Sand” and “The Lonesome Road” were popular on the British Broadcasting Corporation and are now classed as modern music standards. Colin’s birth was registered as Ronald C Atkinson and it isn’t certain when or why he adopted Colin as his first name.
Colin Ronald Michael Atkinson
COLIN’S EARLY LIFE
Colin was educated at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Grammar School, Hummersknott in Darlington, County Durham. The school has gone through several changes and incorporations and is now Carmel College, A Catholic Academy.
Many of the schools local to Colin in his younger days were bequeathed by the Pease Family Estate; a prominent English and mostly Quaker family associated with Darlington and County Durham.
In March 1957 and in the name Colin R M Atkinson, he married Shirley Angus in Durham and they had 3 children David, Sally and Jonny, who was himself a first-class cricketer with Somerset but is now Global Head of Distribution & Business Development, Aspen Insurance.
Colin first played for Somerset in 1959, captained them in the 1965 season and played until 1967 and gained his county cap in 1961.
FROM HIS TEENS TO ADULTHOOD
The Army Cricket Association notes that he played for local clubs from the age of 18 but like all gifted sportsmen he began playing for local clubs at a much earlier age, in and around Mowden. He was also an excellent hockey player and could have been a professional in that sport if he had chosen to follow that path.
Read more at our new site, Last Word on Cricket.
