Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football & Sporting Memorabilia

To be held on Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday
6th, 7th, 8th & 9th August 2026

Roy Kilner. Yorkshire, Europeans & England 1911-1927. Large black album recording the press reaction of Roy Kilner’s death. The well presented album has cuttings, reports and articles following his death on April 5th 1928. The press cuttings are taken from newspapers covering the death from around the country and feature the funeral in Wombwell where it is said, over 100,000 people lined the streets, with over a 1,000 in the cemetery, the Australian 1930 touring team visiting the grave and there is a large Yorkshire Post photograph of both Roy and Norman his brother, as youths to the front of the album. Gilt edged pages. Some splitting to spine of the album otherwise in good condition
The Maharaja of Patiala invited Kilner to play and coach in India in the winter of 1927–28. The trip started badly when Kilner’s uncle, Irving Washington, died the day after he departed, and several of Kilner’s actions suggest this triggered some form of depression. Even so, Kilner recorded several large scores, including an unbeaten 283 in one (non first-class) match. Near the end of trip, he began to suffer from a fever. His Yorkshire teammates, Arthur Dolphin and Maurice Leyland, who were also in India, believed he became unwell after eating oysters, but it is not certain how or when Kilner became ill. He began to have shivering attacks and perspiration while travelling from Marseilles on the way home. It was obvious he was seriously ill when he arrived in Southampton and he was confined to bed. He refused treatment in Southampton, wishing to return to his family. Arriving in Wombwell on 27 March 1928, he was examined by his doctor and taken home. Subsequently, his condition deteriorated and he was taken to a Fever Hospital, near Barnsley. Although it was thought he had passed the worst, his condition became critical in the first few days of April. On 5 April 1928, Kilner died from enteric fever in the presence of his wife

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