Background
Schwarz was born in Lee in 1875 to Robert George Schwarz, a merchant from Bagshot in Surrey.
Schwarz was born in Lee in 1875 to Robert George Schwarz, a merchant from Bagshot in Surrey.
Schwarz was educated at Street Paul"s School in London, and matriculated to Christ"s College, Cambridge in 1893.
At club level, Schwarz played for Richmond and in the 1896-1897 season was invited to play for the Barbarians. Schwarz played a handful of games for Middlesex in 1901 and 1902 before emigrating to South Africa and joining Transvaal. But it was on his return to England with the South African cricket team in 1904 that he made his mark, having learning from Bosanquet how to bowl the googly.
On that 1907 tour, the first on which South Africa played Tests in England, they had no fewer than four leg-break and googly bowlers, Schwarz having passed on the secret of the googly to Aubrey Faulkner, Bert Vogler and Gordon White.
Schwarz retired from regular playing after the 1912 season, though he appeared thrice more for L Robinson"s XI over the next two seasons. In all he took 398 wickets at a fine 17.58 average, and in Tests he took 55 at 22.60.
Schwarz made one first class century: 102 in a non-Test game against an England XI at Lord"s in 1904. Schwarz was a major in the King"s Royal Rifle Corps regiment of the British Army who fought on the Western Front in World War I. He was given the role of Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General and was Assistant Controller of salvage.
He survived the war, but died in the Spanish flu epidemic in Étaples, France just seven days after the Armistice had been signed.
He was 43.
Schwarz was a Member of the London stock exchange from 1899 to 1902, before joining the South African Railways in 1902 after his emigration to South Africa. From 1904 to 1911, he was a Member of the South African stock exchange until he rejoined the London stock exchange on his return to Britain.