Born on 15 March 1862 in Brighton, Sussex, Gordon Beves - the second son of a wealthy timber merchant - was educated at The Leys School in Cambridge. He came to Nottingham in 1881 and trained as a solicitor at the Midland Chambers on Wheeler Gate, thus gaining residential qualification for Nottinghamshire.
A punishing right-handed batsman. he began to appear for Forest Amateurs in 1883 and for Nottingham Amateurs and Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire. He won the prize ball with an innings of 50 in Notts Colts match in 1884 and in the same season scored 177 for Forest Amateurs v Forest United. In August 1887, Beves played for an XI of Notts v MCC at Trent Bridge, scoring 20 and 21 and the following year he captained Notts Colts v Yorkshire Colts at Bramall Lane, showing himself to be the best bat with innings of 32 and 33. His First-Class debut was for Notts v MCC in July 1888, scoring 12 in a fixture badly affected by rain. He then proceeded to play all but one of the remaining Notts fixtures that summer; his best score was 42 v Australians at Trent Bridge in August, Notts winning by an innings and 199 runs. He appeared in one First-Class match for Notts in each of the 1889, 1890 and 1891 seasons, his final match v Middlesex at Lord’s in June 1891. In nine first-class games for Notts, Beves scored 141 runs @9.40. He never bowled for Notts. He also played cricket for The Leys, Sussex and Old Leysians.
In 1894, Beves emigrated to South Africa and made his first-class debut for Transvaal against Natal at Pietermaritzburg in a Currie Cup game in April 1895. His best innings for Transvaal was when as skipper he scored 60 versus Griqualand West at Newlands, Cape Town. His final First-Class match was for Transvaal v Lord Hawke’s XI at Johannesburg in February 1899. In 18 First-Class matches he scored 370 runs @12.33 and took eight wickets @25.12 with a best of 2-13 for Transvaal v Western Province in Albert Park, Durban in April 1895. Bevan was umpire in two Tests between South Africa v England at Johannesburg and Cape Town in March 1896
Gordon Beves was for some years Chairman of the South African Cricket Association. He was also noted as a rugger player, playing 103 games for Nottingham RFC between 1883 to 1894 (scoring 20 tries) and became a rugby referee, including officiating in a Test match in 1896.
Later Beves was a vice-president of Transvaal's cricket and Transvaal's rugby. During World War I he was a Brigadier-General in German East Africa but in two battles his Anglo-Nigerian brigade suffered such casualties that he was relieved of his command.
Gordon Beves died in Auckland Park, Johannesburg on 22 March 1927, aged 65 years.
June 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 201