George Beldam

1868 - 1937

George (William) Beldam was born in Kent 1868 and was a first class cricketer and pioneer of action photography in sport. He revolutionised the way sport was photographed and captured many of the sports personalities as spectators would have seen them, in action and not the traditional form of posed photography. An excellent golfer and cricketer, he produced books of 'action photographs' on Golf, Tennis and Cricket, as well as being a talented watercolour painter. His famous book of photographs 'Great Golfers - their Methods at a Glance', published in 1904 gives an excellent insight into how the great players of the time actually swung the club. He also produced two instructional books with C. B. Fry:- Great Batsmen: Their Methods at a Glance and Great Bowlers and Fielders: Their Methods at a Glance.

His photographs also provided the basis for A. Chevallier Tayler's series of colour lithographs of cricketers in action.

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