Reginald Beaumont “Rex” Heygate was born in Wellingborough on 13th May 1883.  He was educated at Epsom College where he became head prefect and where he played in the rugby XV, the hockey XI and was captain of the cricket XI.  His younger brother Harold, a year younger, was at Epsom for much of the same time.  Reginald was trained at the Middlesex Hospital and became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1906.  For a time, he was a house surgeon at St. Thomas’s before he joined his father in general practice in Wisborough Green where he lived initially in Park View (now named Poacher’s Paddock) on Durbans Road.

In September 1914, Rex was gazetted temporary lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps.  In 1915 he served in the Dardanelles campaign.  He was promoted throughout the war reaching the rank of temporary major.  He relinquished his commission in 1919 and retained the rank of Captain.  Early that year, the press reported on his anticipated return to play cricket for Sussex.

Rex had played first-class cricket and turned out for Sussex in 73 first-class matches between 1902 and 1904, and 1909 to 1911.  Between 1905 and 1908 his medical duties prevented him from playing but, wartime duties notwithstanding, he was able to play for Wisborough Green until 1918, when he moved to Vicarage Hill, Loxwood with the rest of his family, and was the club’s president until 1932.

In 1935, Dr. Heygate retired and at a committee meeting held on 2nd September, the Wisborough Green Cricket Club resolved to hold a collection for a presentation to him and a letter to all members was duly issued.  Arthur Penfold Wyatt suggested that the collection be opened to the general public, but this was vetoed by the club’s committee.  In the event, a sum of ten guineas was raised.  A cheque was presented to Dr. Heygate, who moved to Crieff in Scotland where he farmed chickens.

Rex had often played for Wisborough Green and Sussex with his brother Harold, another first-class cricketer.  Harold had become a mining engineer and after working in Cornwall, Canada and Africa, lived at Warden on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent where he ran an hotel and was involved in a scheme to develop the area.  In 1937, Harold was taken ill and after six weeks he was brought to his mother’s home in Shalford to where she had moved with Gwen.  He died in the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford on 27th June 1937.  He was 54.  Rex came south for the funeral.

In addition to his cricketing prowess, Rex and his sister Gwen sang with the Guildford Choral Society and sometimes gave choral recitals in the village.  As a G.P. he was a committee member of the Wisborough Green Nursing Association, a successful subscription service providing nursing and medical care in the days before the National Health Service.

Rex Heygate died in Moncrieff on 24th April 1956 and was buried in Scotland  His mother Emily had died in 1946 and his sister, who remained in Shalford, died in 1964.  Rex’s parents and siblings are all buried in St. Peter’s churchyard.  None of the children of Frederick and Emily married .

Andrew Strudwick

This is an edited version of an article that appeared  in the February 2025 edition of the history society’s monthly magazine—”Wisborough Green Historian“.