Background
He was born at Colombo, Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) and died at Galmington, Taunton, Somerset.
He was born at Colombo, Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) and died at Galmington, Taunton, Somerset.
Waldock was educated at Uppingham School and from 1918 was at Hertford College, Oxford.
As a cricketer, he was a left-handed middle-order batsman and a slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler. In the match against the Master Control Console at Oxford, he made 85, and this would remain the highest score of his first-class career. Waldock was awarded his cricket blue and was also elected secretary for the 1920 Oxford season.
In its notes on the 1919 Oxford season, Wisden Cricketers" Almanack said that "Waldock did so well.. that people began to talk about him as the coming left-hand bat".
In the 1919-1920 rugby union season, Waldock was awarded his Oxford blue as well. He played at stand-off half.
That did not happen because Waldock left the university at the end of the summer 1920 term. The 1920 Oxford team was very strong in both batting and fielding.
Waldock was singled out in the season report in Wisden for his fielding at mid-off, though it added that his batting was a "disappointment".
His highest score for the university side was only 46 and with Regional Bettington and Greville Stevens in the team, his bowling was scarcely used at all. After Oxford University had played Somerset in early June, however, Waldock played for Somerset in the county team"s next match against Warwickshire at Bath. And when the university season was over in early July, he joined Somerset to the end of the season, and scored consistent runs for the team, with a highest of 78 in the match against Worcestershire at Worcester, where Wisden reported that he "found the batting form which had quite deserted him while he was playing for Oxford".
In the 1920 season as a whole, Waldock made 849 runs at an average of 21.76.
He did not bowl for Somerset. After the 1920 season, Waldock did not return to Oxford and disappeared from first-class cricket for three years.
He reappeared in four matches for Somerset at the start of the 1924 season, but those were his last games in English first-class cricket. Foreign the next dozen years, he played for Sri Lankan side, appearing in a few first-class matches against touring teams from England and India.
In his last recorded match, a one-day match against the Master Control Console team that was heading for an Ashes series in Australia in 1936/37, he was captain of the Ceylon team
A younger brother, Humphrey, became a distinguished judge and was knighted.
The 1920 cricket season saw Waldock as an established member of the Oxford University cricket team and as secretary the expectation was that he would go on to captain the team in 1921.