Chilembwe uprising

The Chilembwe uprising was a rebellion against British colonial rule in Nyasaland (modern-day Malawi) which took place in January 1915. It was led by John Chilembwe, an American-educated Baptist minister. Based around his Church in the village of Mbombwe in the south-east of the protectorate, the leaders of the revolt were mainly from an emerging black middle class. They were motivated by grievances against the colonial system including forced labour, racial discrimination, and new demands imposed on the indigenous population following the outbreak of World War I.

The revolt broke out in the evening of 23 January 1915 when rebels, incited by Chilembwe, attacked the headquarters of the A. L. Bruce Plantation at Magomero and killed three white people. A largely unsuccessful attack on a weapons store in Blantyre followed during the night. By the morning of 24 January the colonial authorities had mobilised the white settler militia and redeployed regular military units from the King's African Rifles (KAR). After a failed attack by government troops on Mbombwe on 25 January, the rebels attacked a Christian mission at Nguludi and burned it down. The KAR and militia took Mbombwe without encountering resistance on 26 January. Many of the rebels, including Chilembwe himself, fled towards Portuguese East Africa (modern Mozambique), hoping to reach safety there, but many were captured. About 40 rebels were executed in the revolt's aftermath, and 300 were imprisoned; Chilembwe was shot dead by a police patrol near the border on 3 February.

Although the rebellion did not itself achieve success, it is commonly cited as a watershed moment in Malawian history. The rebellion had lasting effects on the British system of administration in Nyasaland, and some reform was enacted in its aftermath. After World War II, the growing Malawian nationalist movement reignited interest in the Chilembwe revolt, and after the independence of Malawi in 1964 it became celebrated as a key moment in the nation's history. Chilembwe's memory, which remains prominent in the collective national consciousness, has often been invoked in symbolism and rhetoric by Malawian politicians. Today, the uprising is celebrated annually and Chilembwe himself is considered a national hero.

## Background

British colonial rule in the region of modern-day Malawi, where the revolt occurred, began between 1899 and 1900, when the British sought to increase their formal control over the territory to preempt encroachment by German or Portuguese colonial empires. The region became a British protectorate in 1891 (as "British Central Africa") and in 1907, was named Nyasaland. Unlike many other parts of Africa, where British rule was dependent on the support of local factions, in Nyasaland British control rested on military superiority. During the 1890s the colonial authorities put down numerous rebellions by the local Yao, Ngoni and Cewa peoples.

British rule in Nyasaland radically altered the local indigenous power structures. The early colonial period saw some immigration and settlement by white colonists, who bought large swathes of territory from local chiefs, often for token payments in beads or guns. Most of the land acquired, particularly in the Shire Highlands, was converted into white-owned plantations where tea, coffee, cotton and tobacco were grown. The enforcement of colonial institutions, such as the Hut Tax, compelled many indigenous people to find paid work and the demand for labour created by the plantations led to their becoming a major employer. Once employed on the plantations, black workers found that they were frequently beaten and subject to racial discrimination. Increasingly, the plantations were also forced to rely on a system, known locally as thangata, which at best involved exacting considerable labour as rent in kind and could degenerate into forced labour or corvée.

### Chilembwe and his Church

John Chilembwe, born locally in around 1871, received his early education at a Church of Scotland mission and later met Joseph Booth, a radical Baptist missionary who ran the Zambezi Industrial Mission. Booth preached a form of egalitarianism and his progressive attitude towards race attracted Chilembwe's attention. Under Booth's patronage, Chilembwe travelled to the United States to study at a theological college in Virginia. There he mixed in African-American circles and was influenced by stories of the abolitionist John Brown and the egalitarianist Booker T. Washington.

Despite his Christian pacifist and visionary temperament, Booth was also highly critical of established institutions such as the colonial regime and the Protestant churches of Nyasaland. He was particularly hostile towards the missionaries of Church of Scotland in Blantyre, criticizing their affluent lifestyle in comparison to the poverty of local peasants. Both the colonial government and Presbyterian missionaries were concerned by Booth's "dangerous egalitarian spirit" and being "a determined advocate of racial equality, as well as being fundamentally opposed to the colonial state". Booth was also a staunch advocate of establishing his own industrial mission in addition to the religious one, and acquired 26,537 acres of land at Mitsidi with the help of Harry Johnston. Despite the fact that Booth was an avid anti-colonialist and Johnston a colonial advocate, both men were united by their disdain of Church of Scotland, and Johnston was eager to aid Booth in order to undermine the efforts of Scottish missionaries. Booth's industrial missions were to be "self-managed by educated Africans, and to be largely focussed on agricultural and industrial production". The missions were to be self-supporting and managed by African themselves, with European settlers only serving as guides and advisors. Booth had profound influence on Chilembwe, and his egalitarian and proto-nationalist ideals shaped Chilembwe's own views as well as his Baptist faith.

Having managed to become a competition to other Protestant missionaries, Booth attracted many missionary-educated Africans away from the Presbyterians by offering them exorbitant wages - an African worker was paid 18 shillings a month by Booth, whereas the normal rate in the 1890s was only around three shillings. However, he paid his own African labourers in calico, worth only around two shillings, which was actually less than the salary offered by the rest of European settlers. He founded the African Christian Union, where he emphasized the need for Africans themselves to govern their economy, rather than have the European colonists ‘drain the wealth of Africa’. His organisation had three goals, namely "to spread the Christian gospel throughout the African continent; to establish what he termed ‘Industrial Missions’; and finally, to restore Africa to the African". He advocated for African self-government, and envisioned self-sustainable African economies managed by educated Africans, placing particular emphasis on the production of tea, coffee, cocoa and sugar, as well as mining and manufacturing. Morris notes a significant contradiction in Booth's views that Chilembwe ended up inheriting, being a staunch egalitarianist while also calling for a hierarchical plantation economy and highly capitalist society. To this end, both Chilembwe and Booth were "the embodiment of the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism".

Chilembwe returned to Nyasaland in 1900 and, with the assistance of the African-American National Baptist Convention, he founded his independent church, the Providence Industrial Mission, in the village of Mbombwe. He was considered a "model of non-violent African advancement" by the colonial authorities during the mission's early years. He established a chain of independent black African schools, with over 900 pupils in total and founded the Natives' Industrial Union, a form of cooperative union that has been described as an "embryo chamber of commerce". Nevertheless, Chilembwe's activities led to friction with the managers of the local Alexander Livingstone Bruce Plantation, who feared Chilembwe's influence over their workers. In November 1913, employees of the local A. L. Bruce Estates burnt down churches that Chilembwe or his followers had built on estate land.

Information about Chilembwe's Church before the rebellion is scant, but his ideology proved popular and he developed a strong local following. For at least the first 12 years of his ministry, he preached ideas of African self-respect and advancement through education, hard work and personal responsibility, as advocated by Booker T. Washington, and he encouraged his followers to adopt European-style dress and habits. His activities were initially supported by white Protestant missionaries. The Mission's schools meanwhile began teaching racial equality, based on Christian teaching and anti-colonialism. Many of his leading followers, several of whom participated in the uprising, came from the local middle-class, who had similarly adopted European customs. Chilembwe's acceptance of European culture created an unorthodox anti-colonial ideology based around a form of nationalism, rather than a desire to restore the pre-colonial social order.

Following Booth's example, Chilembwe engaged not only in educational work and evangelism, but also attempted to establish his own agricultural estate. He employed local Lomwe labourers on his plots of coffee, rubber, pepper ad cotton. He won the respect of both fellow Africans and European landowners, and until 1914 "government officials and European missionaries alike regarded Chilembwe with some favour". He became the local leader of emerging African planters and entrepreneurs, particularly attracted to his own Protestant church congregation. It was during this time that Chilembwe started identifying with the discontent of both African classes - the Lomwe immigrants whom he employed, as well as emerging African entrepreneurs. Both African classes were highly alienated by the thangata system, which required every tenant to work for the estate owner in order to pay their rent and "hut tax". Labour rent was imposed during the brief rainy season, which forced Africans to work on their landowner's land while having no time to tend to their own at the critical time of the year. African tenants also had to follow strict regulations, and were prohibited from acquiring timber or hunting animals. In addition, European landowners would often force their tenants to work for far more than the system allowed for, beat their workers with a whip and forced African widows to work on the land too. Chilembwe acted as a spokesman for the local Lomwe people.

Meanwhile, the African planters were frustrated by economic restrictions and social discrimination that they had to endure despite adopting the European way of life. They were unable to obtain freehold land or credit and didn't have the right to sign the labour-tax certificates of their employees, which undermined their chances of attracting workers. Additionally, the colonial government openly favoured the white landowners, who acted like "feudal lords" on their own. Every African planter was "obliged to take off his hat for any European, whether government official or not", and a failure to do so often meant physical and verbal abuse. White settlers and even Protestant ministers, despite preaching equality, resented the African planters, as the fact that educated Africans embraced European fashion and expected to be treated equally was considered "above their station". William Jervis Livingstone was particularly known for using derogatory phrases towards educated and landowning Africans, asking "whose slave they are". Morris identifies this discrimination as one of the main causes for the rebellion.

After 1912, Chilembwe became more radical and began to predict the liberation of the Africans and the end of colonial rule, and began to foster closer links with a number of other independent African churches. From 1914, he preached more militant sermons, often referring to Old Testament themes, concentrating on such aspects as the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt , Chilembwe himself was not part of the apocalyptic Watch Tower movement, which was popular in central Africa at the time and later became known as Kitawala in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but some of his followers may have been influenced by it. The leader of Watch Tower, Charles Taze Russell had predicted that Armageddon would begin in October 1914, which some of Chilembwe's followers equated to an end to colonial rule.

### World War I

World War I broke out in July 1914. By September 1914, the war had spread to Africa as the British and Belgians began a long military campaign against the German colonial army in German East Africa. In Nyasaland, the major effect of the war was massive recruitment of Africans to serve as porters in support of the Allied armies. Porters lived in extremely poor conditions which left them exposed to disease and mortality rates among them during the campaigns were high. At the same time, the recruitment of porters created a shortage of labour which increased the economic pressures on Africans in Nyasaland. Millenarians at the time believed that World War I would be a form of Armageddon, which they believed would destroy the colonial powers and pave the way for the emergence of independent African states.

Chilembwe opposed the recruitment of the Nyasan people to fight what he considered to be a war totally unconnected to them. He promoted a form of Christian pacifism and argued that the lack of civil rights for Africans in the colonial system should exempt them from the duties of military service. In November 1914, following reports of large loss of life during fighting at Karonga, Chilembwe wrote a letter to The Nyasaland Times in Blantyre, explicitly appealing to the colonial authorities not to recruit black troops:

> As I hear that, war has broken out between you and other nations, only whitemen, I request, therefore, not to recruit more of my countrymen, my brothers who do not know the cause of your fight, who indeed, have nothing to do with it ... It is better to recruit white planters, traders, missionaries and other white settlers in the country, who are, indeed, of much value and who also know the cause of this war and have something to do with it ... (original syntax and grammar)

### Preparations

Preparations for the uprising had begun by the end of 1914. Exactly what Chilembwe's objectives were remains unclear but some contemporaries believed that he planned to make himself "King of Nyasaland". He soon acquired a military textbook and began to organise his followers and wider support. In particular, he formed close ties with Filipo Chinyama in Ncheu, 110 miles (180 km) to the north-west and received his assurance that he would also mobilise his followers to join the rebellion when it broke out.

The colonial authorities received two warnings that a revolt was imminent. A disaffected follower of Chilembwe reported the preacher's "worrying intentions" to Philip Mitchell, a colonial civil servant (and future governor of Uganda and Kenya), in August 1914. A Catholic mission was also warned but neither took any action. Brian Morris notes that no action was taken as the colonial regime had no way to confirm the rumours, given the secretive way of the uprising.

## Rebellion

### Outbreak

During the night of Saturday 23–24 January, the rebels met at the Mission church in Mbombwe, where Chilembwe gave a speech stressing that none of them should expect to survive the reprisals that would follow the revolt but that the uprising would draw greater attention to their conditions and destabilise the colonial system. This, Chilembwe believed, was the only way change would ever occur.

A contingent of rebels was sent to Blantyre and Limbe, about 15 miles (24 km) to the south, where most of the white colonists lived and where the insurgents hoped to capture the African Lakes Company's store of weapons. Another group headed towards the Alexander Livingstone Bruce Plantation's headquarters at Magomero. Chilembwe sent a messenger to Ncheu to alert Chinyama that the rebellion was starting.

Chilembwe also sought support for his uprising from the German forces in German East Africa, on Nyasaland's far northern border, hoping that a German offensive from the north combined with a native insurrection in the south might force the British out of Nyasaland permanently. On 24 January, he sent a letter to the German Governor by courier through Portuguese East Africa. The courier was intercepted and the letter was never received. During the latter stages of the East African Campaign, after the German invasion of Portuguese East Africa, the German colonial army actually helped to suppress anti-Portuguese rebellions, among the Makombe and Barue peoples, worrying that African uprisings would destabilise the colonial order.

### Attack on the Livingstone Bruce Plantation

The major action of the Chilembwe uprising involved an attack on the Bruce plantation at Magomero. The plantation spanned about 5,000 acres (20 km2) and grew both cotton and tobacco. Around 5,000 locals worked on it as part of their thangata obligations. The plantation had a reputation locally for the poor treatment of its workers and for the brutality of its managers, who closed local schools, beat their workers and paid them less than had been promised. Their burning of Chilembwe's church in November 1913 created a personal animosity with the rebel leadership. The insurgents launched two roughly concurrent attacks—one group targeted Magomero, the plantation headquarters and home of the main manager William Jervis Livingstone and a few other white staff, while a second assaulted the plantation-owned village of Mwanje, where there were two white households.

The rebels moved into Magomero in the early evening, while Livingstone and his wife were entertaining some dinner guests. The estate official, Duncan MacCormick, was in another house nearby. A third building, occupied by Emily Stanton, Alyce Roach and five children, contained a small cache of weapons and ammunition belonging to the local rifle club. The insurgents quietly broke into the Livingstone's house and injured him during hand-to-hand fighting, prompting him to take refuge in the bedroom, where his wife attempted to treat his wounds. The rebels forced their way into the bedroom, and after capturing his wife, decapitated Livingstone. MacCormick, who had been alerted, was killed by a rebel spear. The attackers took the women and children of the village prisoner but shortly released them unhurt, having reportedly treated them well. It has been suggested that Chilembwe may have hoped to use the women and children as hostages, but this remains unclear. The attack on Magomero, and in particular the killing of Livingstone, had great symbolic significance for Chilembwe's men. The two Mauser rifles captured from the plantation formed the basis of the rebel armoury for the rest of the uprising.

Mwanje had little military value but it has been proposed that the rebels may have hoped to find weapons and ammunition there. Led by Jonathan Chigwinya, the insurgents stormed one of the houses and killed the plantation's stock manager, Robert Ferguson, with a spear as he lay in bed reading a newspaper. Two of the colonists, John Robertson and his wife Charlotte, escaped into the cotton fields and walked 6 miles (9.7 km) to a neighbouring plantation to raise the alarm. One of the Robertsons' African servants, who remained loyal, was killed by the attackers.

### Later actions

The rebels cut the Zomba–Tete and Blantyre–Mikalongwe telephone lines, delaying the spread of the news. The African Lakes' Company weapons store in Blantyre was raided by a force of around 100 rebels at around 02:00 on 24 January, before the general alarm had been raised by news of the Magomero and Mwanje attacks. The defenders mobilised after an African watchman was shot dead by the rebels. The insurgents were repulsed, but not before they had captured five rifles and some ammunition, which was taken back to Mbombwe. A number of rebels were taken prisoner during the retreat from Magomero.

After the initial attacks on the Bruce plantation, the rebels returned home. Livingstone's head was taken back and displayed at the Providence Industrial Mission on the second day of the uprising as Chilembwe preached a sermon. During much of the rebellion, Chilembwe remained in Mbombwe praying and leadership of the rebels was taken by David Kaduya, a former soldier in the King's African Rifles (KAR). Under Kaduya's command, the rebels ambushed a small party of government soldiers near Mbombwe on 24 January, described as the "one reverse suffered by the government" during the uprising.

By the morning of 24 January the government had levied the Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve, a settler militia and redeployed the 1st Battalion, KAR from the north of the colony. The rebels did not mount any further attack any of the many other isolated plantations in the region. They also did not occupy the boma (fort) at Chiradzulu just 5 miles (8.0 km) from Mbombwe, even though it was ungarrisoned at the time. Rumours of rebel attacks spread, but despite earlier offers of support, there were no parallel uprisings elsewhere in Nyasaland and the promised reinforcements from Ncheu did not materialise. The Mlanje or Zomba regions likewise refused to join the uprising.

### Siege of Mbombwe and attempted escape

Troops of the KAR launched a tentative attack on Mbombwe on 25 January but the engagement proved inconclusive. Chilembwe's forces held a strong defensive position along the Mbombwe river and could not be pushed back. Two African government soldiers were killed and three were wounded; Chilembwe's losses have been estimated as about 20.

On 26 January, a group of rebels attacked a Catholic mission at Nguludi belonging to Father Swelsen. The mission was defended by four African armed guards, one of whom was killed, Father Swelsen was also wounded in the fighting and the church was burnt down, resulting in the death of a young girl who was inside at the time. The military and militia forces assaulted Mbombwe again the same day but encountered no resistance. Many rebels, including Chilembwe, had fled the village disguised as civilians. Mbombwe's fall and the government troops' subsequent demolition of Chilembwe's church with dynamite ended the rebellion. Kaduya was captured and brought back to Magomero where he was publicly executed. This was the final attack of the rebellion, and Morris attributed the decision to attack the Catholic mission to "the pervasive anti-Catholic sentiments expressed by the independent Baptists".

Following the attacks, Chilembwe would meditate on the summit of Chilimankhanje hill instead of attempting to regroup the now dispersed rebel troops. He was eventually convinced to leave the hill and escape to Mozambique, a land that he had already been to numerous times during his hunting trips. Chilemwe also wrote a letter to the German colonial regime in Tunduru, asking for aid. He never received a response, and the letter was considered an embarrassment to his supporters, given Germany's reputation as a particularly oppressive colonial power.

After the defeat of the rebellion, most of the remaining insurgents attempted to escape eastwards across the Shire Highlands, towards Portuguese East Africa, from where they hoped to head north to German territory. Chilembwe was seen by a patrol of Nyasaland police and shot dead on 3 February near Mlanje. Many other rebels were captured; 300 were imprisoned following the rebellion and 40 were executed. Around 30 rebels evaded capture and settled in Portuguese territory near the Nyasaland border.

## Aftermath

The colonial authorities responded quickly to the uprising with as much force and as many troops, police and settler volunteers it could muster to hunt down and kill suspected rebels. There was no official death toll, but perhaps 50 of Chilembwe's followers were killed in the fighting, when trying to escape after or summarily executed. Worrying that the rebellion might rapidly reignite and spread, the authorities instigated arbitrary reprisals against the local African population, including mass hut burnings. All weapons were confiscated and fines of 4 shillings per person were levied in the districts affected by the revolt, regardless of whether the people in question had been involved. As part of the repression, a series of courts were hastily convened which passed death sentences on Forty-six men for the offences of murder and treason and 300 others were given prison sentences. Thirty-six were executed and, to increase the deterrent effect, some of the ringleaders were hanged in public on a main road close to the Magomero Estate where Europeans had been killed.

The colonial government also began attacking the rights of missionaries in Nyasaland and, although Anglican missions, those of the Scottish churches and Catholic missions were not affected, it banned many smaller, often American-originated churches, including the Churches of Christ and Watchtower Society, from Nyasaland, and placed restrictions on other African-run churches. Public gatherings, especially those associated with African-initiated religious groups, were banned until 1919. Fear of similar uprisings in other colonies, notably Northern Rhodesia, also led to similar repression of independent churches and foreign missions beyond Nyasaland.

Though the rebellion failed, the threat to colonial rule posed by the Chilembwe revolt compelled the local authorities to introduce some reform. The colonial government proposed to undermine the power of independent churches like Chilembwe's, by promoting secular education but lack of funding made this impossible. The government began to promote tribal loyalties in the colony, through the system of indirect rule, which was expanded after the revolt. In particular, the Muslim Yao people, who attempted to distance themselves from Chilembwe, were given more power and autonomy. Although delayed by the war, the Nyasaland Police, which had been primarily composed of African askaris levied by local white officials, was restructured as a professional force of white colonists. Forced labour was retained, and would remain a resentment for decades afterwards.

While the uprising enjoyed sympathy amongst Yao commoners, none of the Yao chiefs in the Shire Highlands supported it. Most of them embraced Islam instead of Christianity and considered the African planters a threat to their political hegemony. The Commission of Enquiry dismissed the uprising as a localised affair caused by harsh mistreatment of natives by the Magomero estate. However, the grievances expressed by Chilembwe were not unique to his area, and the Africans across the entire Nyasaland identified with his struggle. Africans had no rights as tenants under the thangata system, had to pay rent in labour, and were prohibited from gathering wood or hunting wild animals in the woodlands surrounding the European estates, even though they considered woodland resources to be common property. Harry Kambwiri Matecheta noted that while the British colonial regime did suppress slave trade, the thangata system simply introduced a new form of slavery.

The rebels were of diverse social and economic backgrounds, consisting of Yao people, Lomwe immigrants, agricultural farmers and African pretty bourgeoisie. The colonial regime ignored African petitions and failed to translate their laws into local languages, leading to many locals not understanding them at all. Morris notes that Africans of Nyasaland were increasingly hostile to the British rule due to physical abuse and mistreatment they had to endure, and if the rebellion managed to get support from German East Africa and acquire weapon caches during the attack African Lakes Company depot in Blantyre, it could have turned into "a wider and more protracted struggle". Morris concludes that the rebellion was a response to colonial oppression, particularly towards racial injustice. It was a "struggle for freedom" with elements of Christian utopianism, with Chilembwe expressing two contrasting political traditions - Booth's radical egalitarianism and a "petty capitalist orientation" of the Protestant churches, which stressed the right to private property, wage labour and commercial agriculture.

### Commission of Enquiry

In the aftermath of the revolt, the colonial administration formed a Commission of Enquiry to examine the causes and handling of the rebellion. The Commission, which presented its conclusions in early 1916, found that the revolt was chiefly caused by mismanagement of the Bruce plantation. The Commission also blamed Livingstone himself for "treatment of natives [that was] often unduly harsh" and for poor management of the estate. The Commission found that the systematic discrimination, lack of freedoms and respect were key causes of resentment among the local population. It also emphasised the effect of Booth's ideology on Chilembwe.

The Commission's reforms were not far-reaching—though it criticised the thangata system, it made only minor changes aimed at ending "casual brutality". Though the government passed laws banning plantation owners from using the services of their tenants as payment of rent in 1917, effectively abolishing thangata, it was "uniformly ignored". A further Commission in 1920 concluded that the thangata could not be effectively abolished, and it remained a constant source of friction into the 1950s.

## In later culture

Despite its failure, the Chilembwe rebellion has since gained an important place in the modern Malawian cultural memory, with Chilembwe himself gaining "iconic status." The uprising had "local notoriety" in the years immediately after it, and former rebels were kept under police observation. Over the next three decades, anti-colonial activists idealised Chilembwe and began to see him as a semi-mythical figure. The Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) of the 1940s and 1950s used him as a symbolic figurehead, partly because its president, James Chinyama, had a family connection to Filipo Chinyama, who had been believed to be an ally of Chilembwe's. When the NAC announced that it intended to mark 15 February annually as Chilembwe Day, colonial officials were scandalised. One wrote that to "venerate the memory of the fanatic and blood thirsty Chilembwe seems to us to be nothing less than a confession of violent intention."

D. D. Phiri, a Malawian historian, characterised Chilembwe's uprising as an early expression of Malawian nationalism, as did George Shepperson and Thomas Price in their 1958 book Independent African, an exhaustive study of Chilembwe and his rebellion that was banned during the colonial era but still widely read by the educated classes. Chilembwe became viewed as an "unproblematic" hero by many of the country's people. The Malawi Congress Party (MCP), which ultimately led the country to independence in 1964, made a conscious effort to identify its leader Hastings Banda with Chilembwe through speeches and radio broadcasts. Bakili Muluzi, who succeeded Banda in 1994, similarly invoked Chilembwe's memory to win popular support, inaugurating a new annual national holiday, Chilembwe Day, on 16 January 1995. Chilembwe's portrait was soon added to the national currency, the kwacha, and reproduced on Malawian stamps. It has been argued that for Malawian politicians, Chilembwe has become "symbol, legitimising myth, instrument and propaganda".

## Historical analysis

The revolt has been the subject of much research and has been interpreted in various ways by historians. At the time, the uprising was generally considered to mark a turning point in colonial rule. The Governor of Nyasaland, George Smith, declared that the revolt marked a "new phase in the existence of Nyasaland". According to the military historian Hew Strachan, the Chilembwe uprising tarnished British prestige in East Africa which contributed, after the appointment of the future Prime Minister Bonar Law as Secretary of State for the Colonies, to renewed pressure for an Anglo-Belgian offensive against German East Africa.

Chilembwe's aims have also come under scrutiny. According to Robert I. Rotberg, Chilembwe's speech of 23 January appeared to stress the importance and inevitability of martyrdom as a principal motivation. The same speech depicted the uprising as a manifestation of desperation but because of his desire to "strike a blow and die", he did not have any idea of what he would replace colonialism with if the revolt succeeded. Rotberg concludes that Chilembwe planned to seize power in the Shire Highlands or perhaps in all of Nyasaland. John McCracken attacks the idea that the revolt could be considered nationalist, arguing that Chilembwe's ideology was instead fundamentally utopian and created in opposition to localised abuses of the colonial system, particularly thangata. According to McCracken, the uprising failed because Chilembwe was over-reliant on a small Europeanised petite bourgeoisie and did not gain enough mass support. Rotberg's examination the Chilembwe revolt from a psychoanalytical perspective concludes that Chilembwe's personal situation, his psychosomatic asthma and financial debt may have been contributory factors in his decision to plot the rebellion.

## See also

- Bussa rebellion—a 1915 uprising against British indirect rule in northern Nigeria
- Chimurenga—a rebellion against the British South Africa Company administration in nearby Southern Rhodesia in 1896–97.
- Maji Maji Rebellion—a war against German colonial rule in East Africa, 1905–08
- History of Malawi

Rebellion against colonial rule (1915)


Bob Willis

Robert George Dylan Willis MBE (born Robert George Willis; 30 May 1949 – 4 December 2019) was an English cricketer, who represented England between 1971 and 1984. A right-handed fast bowler, Willis is regarded by many as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time.

He is England's fourth-highest wicket-taker, as of June 2023, behind James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ian Botham. Willis took 899 first-class wickets overall, although from 1975 onwards he bowled with constant pain, having had surgery on both knees. He nevertheless continued to find success, taking a Test career-best eight wickets for 43 runs in the 1981 Ashes series against Australia, one of the all-time best Test bowling performances. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1978.

In addition to the Test arena, Willis played 64 One Day International matches for his country, taking 80 wickets, and was a prolific List-A (one-day) cricketer with 421 wickets overall at 20.18. As a tail-ender, Willis made little impression with the bat, with a top Test score of 28 not-out (\*); however, he managed two half-centuries at first-class level, and for a time held a record number of Test not-outs. Willis captained the England team in 18 Tests and 28 ODI matches between June 1982 and March 1984. Under Willis's captaincy England won seven, lost five and drew six Tests, and won 16 of the ODIs. Botham recalled Willis as "a tremendous trier.. a great team-man and an inspiration", as well as the "only world-class fast bowler in my time as an England player". The editor of Wisden wrote of him in similar terms: "His indomitable service to England is handsomely reflected in his great collection of Test wickets. Although often beset with aches and pains, he never spared himself when bowling for his country."

Retiring in 1984 during a Test series against the West Indies, Willis found later work as a commentator with Sky Sports. He formed a noted commentary partnership with Botham; however, Willis' relatively low-key style, in contrast to Botham's ebullience, meant that from 2006 onwards Willis tended to be used as a second-string commentator. He remained an often-heard broadcaster, a published writer and an occasional critic of the modern game. On the occasion of England's 1000th Test in August 2018, he was named in the country's greatest Test XI by the ECB. The Bob Willis Trophy was established in the 2020 English cricket season in his honour. In June 2021, he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame as one of the special inductees to mark the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship final.

## Early life

Willis was born in Sunderland, County Durham, on 30 May 1949, and grew up in the Surrey village of Stoke d'Abernon near Cobham, having moved there at the age of six. His father was an employee of the BBC; Willis had an elder brother named David, with whom he played cricket in the garden, and an elder sister. In 1965, Willis added his third name "Dylan" by deed poll in honour of American musician Bob Dylan, of whom he was a fan. Willis was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, playing his early cricket for Stoke d'Abernon Cricket Club, where he later became vice president and a Life Member, and two seasons for the Cobham Avorians. He was also an avid schoolboy footballer, but was not a natural athlete and loathed rugby, which was the school's dominant sport. Willis recalled in 2009 that during his school years "in the winter when the muscled brethren were playing, I used to play football with the school old boys. This taught me how to drink cider and vomit it up on Surbiton station, and other life-altering lessons." His bowling potential was rewarded with selection for Surrey Schools and Surrey Colts, under the directorship of Watcyn Evans, who would become a close friend.

## Playing career

### County debut

In 1968, Willis accepted an invitation to join Middlesex and Surrey Young Cricketers on tour in Pakistan, and used this opportunity to further hone his skills. Upon his return he made early appearances for Surrey's Second XI, his first being on 26 August against Worcestershire's Seconds. Willis, 19 years of age, took one wicket for 48 runs in the first innings, and bowled four wicketless overs in the second. He was not called on to bat at all. Two days later, he faced Glamorgan and took three wickets. He played several further Second XI matches during May and June 1969, before his first-class debut on 6 August. Scotland was touring England that season and had already beaten Warwickshire. Willis took three wickets for 13 runs from 13 overs in his first innings, and two for 37 in his second, to help Surrey to victory by an innings and 97 runs. Willis went on to take 22 first-class wickets that season at 17.22 from six matches, placing him 15th in the national averages for that season's County Championship. Surrey came third in the competition that year. Willis also played two List-A games, but took only one wicket at 52.00.

Willis had thus earned a second season at Surrey, and in 1970 played 14 Championship matches, taking 40 first-class wickets at 28.37, and 31 one day wickets at 14.65. Surrey came fifth in the Championship that year. He achieved a noteworthy performance in the Gillette Cup quarter-final against Middlesex. In a high-scoring match, Surrey made 280 for the loss of five wickets. Middlesex appeared to be coasting to victory when they reached 240–3, but Willis turned the game, and they collapsed and finished on 272–9. Willis took 6–49 in his 12 overs and won the Man of the Match award. Despite this, Surrey's preference for Geoff Arnold and Robin Jackman kept Willis out of the side on occasions. He prepared to spend the winter employed at the Crystal Palace Recreation Centre while playing as a goalkeeper for local football club Cobham. However, Ray Illingworth and Colin Cowdrey, captain and vice captain of England's Test side, contacted him via telephone to ask him to travel to Australia and join the current England tour there. Willis, who knew that Illingworth and Cowdrey had little knowledge of his bowling, later credited his call-up to the influence of senior member of the touring party John Edrich, Willis' long-term friend, mentor and Surrey teammate.

### International beginnings

Willis joined England's 1970–71 tour of Australia as a replacement for the injured Alan Ward, and played several warm-up matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in December. Wisden records that his "infectious enthusiasm and team spirit played no small part in Australia's downfall" as England won the Ashes in the subsequent Test series. Willis' first Test, on 9 January 1971 – the fourth Test of the series, played when the series stood level after two draws and an abandonment – saw him score 15 not out as England batted first and reached 332. In the Australian first innings he bowled an economical nine overs for 26 runs, while Derek Underwood took four wickets to reduce Australia to 236. Subsequently, an unbeaten 142 from Geoffrey Boycott set Australia 416 to win. With John Snow routing Australia with 7/40, Willis was only given three overs to bowl on a pitch "without pace", but he managed to take his first Test wicket – Ashley Mallett, caught by Alan Knott for six.

Willis remained in the team for the fifth Test at Melbourne, and rewarded the selectors with 3/73 in the first innings and 1/42 in the second as the match was drawn. Of the final two matches, Willis took three wickets in the drawn Adelaide Test, and four more in the final match of the series, a victory at Sydney Cricket Ground which gave England a 2–0 series victory. Willis finished his first Test series with 12 wickets at 27.41, and had also taken several "crucial catches". He was retained for the second match of the two-Test series against New Zealand in Auckland in March, in which he took two wickets.

### Surrey to Warwickshire

Willis returned in early 1971 to help Surrey win the County Championship title that year. However, friction was developing between him and the club. During the season Willis took 31 Championship wickets at 28.83, but found himself unable to accept the contract offered to him by the club. Though the county was reluctant to lose him, Willis sought another club. He took two wickets in his final match for Surrey against Hampshire on 11 September 1971. After turning down Leicestershire and Lancashire he signed for Warwickshire, for whom he had immediate success, with 25 wickets at 29.28, including one five-wicket haul (taking five wickets in one innings). Willis, who under rules then applying was banned from playing for his new county before July, helped Warwickshire win the 1972 Championship, thus achieving the unusual feat of winning the Championship in consecutive years with two different counties. In his final match of the season, he took 8/44 to demolish Derbyshire. His new team won nine of their 20 matches, drew 11 and lost none. He was not selected for the 1972 Ashes series in England, and travelled to South Africa as part of Derrick Robins' invitation XI in January. On the tour Willis took 13 wickets from the six matches.

Willis spent part of the 1973 season injured with one of what would become several recurring complaints. He nevertheless managed 43 wickets in the Championship at 18.95, though his injury barred him from all but one Test against the West Indies cricket team. The West Indies amassed 652–8 declared. Willis took four wickets for 118 runs – career-best Test figures thus far – and was the last batsman standing as Vanburn Holder and Keith Boyce routed England for 233 and 193. He then made his ODI debut with two games against the touring side in September, taking 2/29 and scoring five not out as England took a one-wicket victory in the West Indies' first ever ODI match. He went wicketless and conceded 5.5 runs per over in the second, which the West Indies won by eight wickets.

### West Indies, Indian subcontinent and Australia

Willis then travelled to the Caribbean as part of England's winter tour, in what Wisden described as an "automatic selection"; however, he was to struggle against the top Test side. In the first Test, on 2 February 1974, he took only one wicket, followed by three in the second, and one for a hundred runs in the final match. He was to struggle against the West Indies throughout his career. His bowling average against them ended at 36.34, whereas against no other team was it above 26.14.

Willis then returned to England, to face India and Pakistan, playing in one Test against each. Against India he took 4/64 – a career best against that team – and made a Test best 24 with the bat. Pakistan toured in early August, and Willis featured in one Test. He took one wicket for 133 runs. He also played one ODI where he took one wicket caught and bowled as Pakistan achieved a seven wicket victory. At this point, Willis was suffering from a recurring back injury. He played 13 Championship games for Warwickshire during the 1974 season, taking 44 wickets at 21.56 including one five-wicket haul. In November, Willis touring Australia during the 1974/75 Ashes series, playing in five Test matches. He took 17 Test wickets at 30.70, including a best of 5/42, out of 26 first-class wickets at 31.19 overall. He was, however, playing with growing injury concerns which required several painkilling injections.

### Injury and operation

Willis returned to England in January 1975 with a recurring knee injury which had caused him to collapse at a county game early that season, and underwent several operations to correct it. He had surgery on both knees, and suffered a post-operative blood clot. He was forced to use crutches for most of the season, and reflected in 1978 that it was "similar to a 50,000-mile service". His recovery was particularly tortuous, requiring daily runs around the cricket field and an intensive gym program under the supervision of Dr. Arthur Jackson, an advocate of slow running therapy to build stamina. He played no part in the international arena in 1975, and managed only four first-class appearances, though these returned a healthy 18 wickets at 18.77. He was not to return to the Test game until 1976, where he faced the West Indies in two matches in July and August.

That year, he had made a comfortable return to the county game from injury – taking 16 Championship wickets at 26.12. He had also scored a career best 43 with the bat. After coming fit from injury, Willis was brought into the squad for the fourth Test against the West Indies on 22 July as part of wholesale bowling changes that saw Brian Close, Edrich, Mike Hendrick, Mike Selvey and Pat Pocock replaced with John Snow, Ward, Bob Woolmer, David Steele and Willis. He took three wickets for 71 runs and then a five-wicket haul in the second innings. This both gave him career best figures and took him past 50 Test wickets. His last four wickets fell in 24 balls at the cost of three runs, described by Wisden as a "fine piece of fast bowling". Tony Greig's England, however, struggled to make any impression on the West Indies through the series, Viv Richards dominating with 829 runs across the series. Willis could only take one further wicket in the fifth and final Test, which the tourists won easily. By this time Willis, whose injury troubles were continuing, turned down a coaching opportunity in South Africa in order to not risk his fitness, and went on the dole.

### Revival in India and the 1977 Ashes

Over the winter of 1976/77, England toured India in a five Test series through December to February, and it proved to be a revival for Willis. Wisden recorded the India tour to be the time when he "put to flight any who doubted his right to be acclaimed as one of the world's foremost fast bowlers". Willis took 32 wickets for 15.09 across the entire tour, 20 of those in the Test matches for 16.75. He took five for 27 in the second Test, and then six for 53 in the fourth – earning him career best Test figures thus far, and taking him past 400 first-class wickets. Four of his wickets came in four overs with the second new ball, "although he received no help from the pitch". Wisden record that "His 20 wickets in the series stamped Willis as a bowler of genuine pace and in-disputable class."

The 1977 Ashes took place across five Tests between June and August that year, in all of which Willis featured. Preceding them were three ODI fixtures, across which Willis took a total of five wickets at 15.80. The first Test took place on 16 June, at Lord's. Australia, batting second and looking to take a lead over England's 216 all out, were dismantled by Willis who returned a career-best 7/78. After a century from Woolmer, Australia fell to 114/6 with two more wickets to Willis before the match ended as a draw. Willis' "hostile speed" gained praise in giving "Australia a real fright". Wills took four more wickets in the second Test to aid Underwood in restricting Australia's totals and giving England a nine wicket victory, and was "fast and accurate" in the third Test for his five-wicket haul, the match in which Botham made his debut. Willis went wicketless in England's innings victory in the fourth Test, however he took another five-for in the final match, including both Australian openers. His 27 wickets across the series was a record for an England fast bowler facing Australia in England, and his final wicket of the series was his 100th. Around these Test matches, Willis also made 10 County Championship appearances, netting 29 wickets at 19.41. This included a haul of 8/32 against Gloucestershire on 20 August, which would remain his best first-class figures for his career.

The year ended with Willis on winter tour to Pakistan and New Zealand. Willis dismissed seven Pakistani batsmen for 27.14 runs each, though did not appear in any of the ODI matches. In New Zealand he took a further 14 wickets at 18.21, including 5/32 in the first Test. In the second innings of the second Test of this series, Willis, by now England vice-captain, was involved in a notorious incident in which Ian Botham - apparently on Willis's recommendation - intentionally ran out captain Geoff Boycott in order to assist the team in pressing for a result. England indeed went on to win the match, Willis taking 4/14 in the second innings.

### Wisden Cricketer of the Year – 1978

Willis made 10 Championship appearances in the 1978 season, taking 37 wickets at 18.27. He was also third in the national averages for the Benson and Hedges Cup that year, with 16 wickets at 6.75, including four wickets for four runs in one innings. That year also saw Pakistan and New Zealand return to tour England between June and August. Though Botham took Man of the Series for his 13 wickets (in addition to scoring two centuries with the bat), Willis also netted 13 Pakistani batsmen for 17.92, including a five-wicket haul in the second Test. He also earned a Man of the Match award for his 4/15 in the first ODI. In the second ODI Willis captained England in an international for the first time because of an injury to Geoff Boycott. He was however also involved with a controversy regarding the growing practice of short-pitched bowling at tailend batsman after Iqbal Qasim was forced to retire hurt after being hit by one of his deliveries in the first Test at Birmingham. Against New Zealand, Willis took 12 Test wickets at 19.08, and passed 150 career Test wickets with his 4/16 in the third Test.

Wisden noted Willis' achievements against Australia in 1977, stating that "the new-ball fire power of Bob Willis, which yielded 27 wickets, was of special significance in England's high summer of success. No England bowler of authentic speed can boast a comparable record in a home series against Australia". In continued: "It was singularly appropriate that team and personal triumph should go hand in hand, for few players have given such loyal and unstinted service to England as the wholehearted Willis... Happily determination is one virtue Willis does not lack, and his re-emergence as a top ranking fast bowler was well and truly deserved." Across all first-class matches that year, Willis had taken 65 wickets at 18.41, the most of any season of his career. His 35 List-A wickets was also the second highest he would achieve for a season behind the 45 of 1983. Wisden also praised him for refusing to partake in Kerry Packer's World Series cricket, and proclaimed him a Wisden Cricketer of the Year along with Botham, Hendrick, Alan Jones and Ken McEwan.

### 1978–79 Ashes

In the winter of 1978/79, Willis travelled to Australia for that season's Ashes series, which England won 5–1 against an Australian team depleted by the rebel Packer tour. The tour commenced with four first-class fixtures against South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Willis then bowled 1,123 deliveries during the Test series, taking 20 wickets at 23.05. In the first Test on 1 December 1978, he took 4/44 and 3/69 in a seven-wicket England win. He then took 5/44 in the second match on 15 December, as England secured a 2:0 lead with a 166 run victory, and following an abandoned ODI match on Boxing Day failed to take a wicket as Australia won the third Test to bring the series to 2:1.

The fourth Test followed on 6 January, and England took a 93-run victory with two wickets to Willis, before a repeat of the first ODI was attempted and again abandoned after 7.2 overs. England then played three first-class matches before a second ODI on 24 January. Australia, batting first, were routed for 101 all out by Hendrick and Botham, Willis bowling a wicketless but economic spell of eight overs for 15 runs and four maidens. England reached the target with seven wickets to spare. In the fifth Test that followed, Willis picked up 3/41 in Australia's second innings, however with the bat he made 24 from 20 balls, with three fours and a six. With this cameo knock, he both surpassed his previous best Test score, and passed 1,500 first-class runs.

In the sixth and final Test, England took a nine wicket victory to seal the series convincingly 5−1. Willis took 1/48 and managed to hit 10 runs with the bat. Willis "struck early and decisive blows" through the series, although struggled for rhythm between the second and fifth Tests, whereupon he "suddenly regained his fire and rhythm". In all first-class fixtures of the tour, Willis had taken 34 wickets at 20.47, though this was the third highest average of the England bowlers. His tail-end batting had netted him 115 runs at 12.77.

### 1979 World Cup

In 1979, England hosted the Cricket World Cup. The host nation played a 13-man squad: captain Mike Brearley, Botham, Geoffrey Boycott, Phil Edmonds, Graham Gooch, David Gower, Hendrick, Wayne Larkins, Geoff Miller, Chris Old, Derek Randall, Bob Taylor (wk) and Willis. England, who had no warm-up games, played their first match against Australia on 9 June at Lord's, whom they "breezed" past. Willis took one wicket for 20 runs from his 11 overs, surpassed by Boycott – who would be an unlikely bowling hero during the tournament – who took 2/15. Reduced to chasing 159, England proceeded slowly, with Brearley's 44 coming from 147 balls, and they reached the target at 47.1 overs. Their next game, against Canada, saw the visiting team routed for 45 with Willis taking 4/11 and Man of the Match Old taking 4/8. Boycott and Gooch finished the game within 13.5 overs. England's final Group A match on 16 June saw them defeat Pakistan by 14 runs. Willis hit three fours in his 24 from 37 balls to help England to 165/9, and his one wicket for 37 runs, along with Boycott's 2/14, helped England keep Pakistan from the target.

England thus qualified for the semi-finals against New Zealand. Willis managed to chip one run from his two balls as England reached 221/8, and then took a single wicket to keep New Zealand to 212. During the match, however, Willis fell to injury. He had left the field before the end of the match with a recurrence of his knee injury and was ruled out of the final, which England lost to the West Indies. Though he missed the final, Willis took seven wickets across the whole competition at 15.57 runs each – placing him fifth in bowling average across all the teams, and his economy rate of 2.44 runs an over was the fourth best.

Willis followed his recuperation from injury by playing the first, third and fourth Test matches against India, taking 10 wickets at 29.80. Between his international appearances, he struggled with nine Championship wickets at 42.00, as Warwickshire came fifteenth in the country.

### 1980, Australia and the West Indies

The winter of 1979/80 and the followed summer saw difficult tours for Willis: the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup and a Test tour in Australia followed by a home series against the West Indies. Willis partook in all seven of England's matches for the World Series Cup, however he struggled with six wickets at 41.00. England did secure the highest number of points however they were beaten in both finals by the West Indies. In the midst of these matches, England and Australia played three Test matches in which Willis took only 3 wickets at 74.66, going wicketless in third Test. In the county front, however, his position at Warwickshire was reaffirmed as he was appointed county captain.

Two ODI matches back in England commenced the West Indies tour, with Willis being included only in the team for the second match, here he took two wickets and two catches in a three-wicket England victory. Wills then faced the West Indies Test team across four matches, the first on 5 June. He took four wickets for 82 runs in the first innings, and five in the second – passing 650 first-class wickets in the process though the Man of the Match award was given to Andy Roberts' 5/72 and 3/57, the West Indies winning by two wickets. The second Test was a draw, though Willis collected three wickets. He only managed 1/99 in the third match, however, and equalled his Test best score of 24 with the bat in the fourth Test at the Oval, passing 500 Test runs in the process, and helping to save a test match which had appeared lost by sharing in an unbroken last-wicket partnership of 117 with Peter Willey. The West Indies nonetheless secured a 1:0 series victory. Willis had marked his improved form with 14 wickets at 29.07, and had fared better in the County Championship that year, taking 27 wickets at 31.70. He had also taken 23 one day wickets that season at 25.95, and had the satisfaction in his first season as captain of leading his county to victory in the John Player League, only a year after they had finished at the foot of the table in the same tournament.

### 1981 Ashes

Australia arrived in England for the 51st Ashes series in 1981. Willis, who was selected to play in all six Test matches, came into the series on a run of good county form. He had played four county matches, commencing with 5/61 against Yorkshire on 6 May, and 3/58 against Lancashire on 10 June. The first Test took place at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, on 18 June. England, batting first, were cut down for 185 all out thanks to four wickets for Terry Alderman and three a-piece for Dennis Lillee and Rodney Hogg. Only Mike Gatting passed fifty, and Willis was dismissed for a first-ball duck. Willis, however, combined with Dilley, Hendrick and Botham to reduce Australia to 179 all out, with three wickets for Willis. England could not take advantage, however, as Lillee and Alderman shared the host nation's ten wickets equally between them to leave Australia only 132 to win. Dilley took four wickets and Willis snatched Graeme Wood for eight to reach 200 Test wickets, however the tourists won the match with four wickets to spare.

Between the first and second Tests, Willis went back to Warwickshire to face Gloucestershire in a County Championship match, grabbing three wickets. He returned to face Australia on 2 July for the second Test, and England batting first. Thanks to 82 from Peter Willey, and a second half-century from Gatting, together with five runs from Willis, England reached 311 – though Geoff Lawson took seven wickets. Australia surpassed this and were dismissed for 345, with three wickets for Willis and three for Dilley. The England bowlers suffered from no balls, Willis alone bowling 28. England declared late in the game on 265/8, and Willis picked up another wicket as Australia reached 90/4 at the close of play. Botham, who had captained the side until then, was sacked and replaced by Brearley. Willis, who was struggling for fitness and had a chest infection, was dropped from the side. He sat out a Warwickshire county match and after speaking to Alec Bedser was given back his place in the team on the condition that he played in a 40-over match, played a Second XI game, and bowled 12 overs in the nets. He succeeded in these tasks, and was tentatively let back into the squad over a spinner.

The third Test – Willis' 60th – came on 16 July, and England were able to level the series 1:1 thanks to Botham's Man of the Match performance (seven wickets, century and half century) and Willis's hostile bowling in the second innings. Willis bowled 30 wicketless overs in Australia's first innings, and made one run. As England followed on in their second innings he made only two with the bat, but these were part of a 37 run last wicket partnership with Botham. He then returned to bowl with Australia requiring 130 runs. At one point, England had been quoted at 500–1 to win the match. Willis began an "inspired" bowling performance, having requested to bowl downhill from the Kirkstall Lane end once Australia were 56/1. Trevor Chappell, Kim Hughes and Graham Yallop were caught by close fielders, while Rod Marsh and John Dyson were caught at fine leg and behind the wicket respectively trying to play the hook shot. Dennis Lillee was caught from the only ball Willis pitched up. Then when Willis uprooted Ray Bright's middle stump Australia were bowled out for 111, losing by 18 runs. Willis took 8/43, his career best Test figures. Two of his victims had been out for zero, and three others for single figure scores. John Dyson had top-scored with 34 before Willis removed him. Willey recalled it as an "amazing spell" while Wisden called it "the most staggering bowling of his life when his place again seemed threatened".

England then moved into the fourth Test 1:1 in the series. Again batting first, Alderman's five-for took England to 189 all out, with Willis making 13 runs. He then bowled a wicketless but "stormy" 19 overs "as if the devil were at his heels" and, after England had set Australia a final target of 151 runs, took two wickets which along with Botham's five-wicket haul dismissed the Australians for 121 and handed England a 29-run victory and a series lead. Willis played for his county against Middlesex between the fourth and fifth Tests, taking one wicket. He then rejoined his team for the fifth Test at Old Trafford. England reached 231 thanks to partly to a "priceless" 56-run late partnership between Paul Allott (52) and Willis (11) before Willis then led the bowling attack with four wickets to restrict Australia to 130 all out. Another century from Botham took England to 404, setting the tourists 506 runs to win. Yallop and Allan Border both scored centuries, however three wickets for Willis and two for Paul Allott, Botham and John Emburey dismissed them for 402, 103 runs short of victory.

Willis continued to enjoy some form with the bat with 33\* against Nottinghamshire in the interval between the fifth and final Tests, though he went wicketless. On 27 August, Australia and England met for the sixth Test at the Oval. The tourists reached 352 thanks to a century from Border, while Willis took four wickets and Botham six. A century from Boycott then defied Lillee's seven wicket haul to take England to 314, and in reply Hendrick and Botham took four wickets each to set their team a target of 383 runs to win while Willis went without a wicket in the second innings. With half-centuries from Gatting and Brearley, England reached 261 before the match ended as a draw. England were victorious in the series 3:1, and Botham's efforts led to it being unofficially referred to as 'Botham's Ashes'.

Willis meanwhile, travelled to India with England in November 1981 for a six Test series against India and one against Sri Lanka. He took 12 wickets at 31.75 against India, and three more Test and two wickets ODI against Sri Lanka. Between these international fixtures, Willis had secured 13 County Championship wickets at 28.55, though Warwickshire came bottom of the table.

### England captaincy

Willis began the 1982 county season with five County Championship fixtures, featuring his first half-century with the bat, a career-best 72, while leading Warwickshire against the touring Indian side on 9 May. He also took two wickets. He also reached his 750th first-class wickets with his 2/71 against Yorkshire on 19 May. India were scheduled to play three Tests and two ODI matches that tour; however, before the matches began, the England selectors dropped Fletcher, the captain. Willis, though seen as an unlikely candidate and ambivalent towards the role, was awarded the captaincy. On 2 June, the new captain faced India as part of the England ODI squad, taking two wickets and effecting a run-out with the help of Botham, who also took four wickets. England restricted India to 193 and achieved victory by nine wickets. The second ODI match followed two days later, and England also won – this time by 114 runs with Willis taking 1/10 from seven overs.

With two victories under his belt, Willis led his team to the first Test on 10 June. Batting first, he hit a career-best 28 runs in a last-wicket partnership with Allott (41) worth 70 – an England record against India – which took the hosts to 433 all out. Willis then set about taking apart the Indian batting line-up with 3/41 and 6/101 to leave England 65 runs to chase, which they reached for the loss of three wickets. Wisden described Willis as "bowling near his fastest" and he took his 250th Test wicket during the match. Willis took two further wickets in the second Test; however, centuries from Botham and Sandeep Patil, who hit Willis for 24 runs in an over, ensured large innings scores that pushed the match to a draw. Botham followed with his career-best 208 in the third match to take England to 594 all out, and Willis then took 3/78 to keep India to 410. He then declared England's second innings at 191 to leave India 376 to win, and collected the wicket of Ravi Shastri before India closed out the final day with 111/3. Willis thus completed his first Test series in victorious fashion, with 15 Test wickets of his own at 22.00. In 1982 Willis also led England to a 2–1 victory in a tight Test series against Pakistan, equalling his highest Test score with an innings of 28 not out in the first Test, sharing in a last-wicket stand with Bob Taylor of 79. Willis was absent for the second Test, which England (captained by David Gower) lost, before returning for the tense third Test. Willis was available for only three more first-class games that season, and finished it with a total of 24 wickets at 35.08. In 1982 Willis also captained Warwickshire to the final of the NatWest Trophy, although they lost the final heavily to his former county Surrey. He promptly travelled to Australia to lead England in the 1982-83 Ashes.

Over the winter of 1982/83, England's winning Ashes team travelled to Australia under Willis' captaincy. Willis took two three-wicket hauls in two warm-up first-class matches; however, he was absent from two others and Botham took over the captaincy. By now, continuing injury problems were beginning to plague the ageing bowler's body. He took 3/95 in the first Test as Australia reached 424 in reply to England's first innings 411, of which Willis had made 26. Derek Randall's century in England's second innings took them to 358, and Australia reached 73 at the close of play on the final day for the loss of two wickets, both of which were taken by Willis, leaving the match drawn. Willis picked up 5/66 in the second Test; however, Australia easily reached a low fourth innings target to go 1–0 up. The third Test followed a similar pattern, with England replying with two low scores in the face of Australia's first innings 438, and Australia taking an eight-wicket win to take a 2–0 lead in the series, despite Willis' three wickets. England achieved what was then the narrowest Ashes victory margin of three runs in the fourth Test at Melbourne, with Willis taking three wickets. Willis commentated on the game that "You never give up and you never think it has gone." The fifth match ended in a draw, so Australia won the series 2–1. Across the entire tour, Willis took 28 first-class wickets. In the following World Series Cup between England, Australia and New Zealand, England were knocked out despite 14 wickets for Willis at 21.14.

Willis returned to Warwickshire for the 1983 season, struggling in the county season with 21 wickets at 36.76 in the County Championship, though finding more success in the one day arena with a career-best 45 wickets at 16.24. He captained England in the 1983 Cricket World Cup where England reached the semi-finals where they were defeated by eventual winners India. He also led England in a four Test series against New Zealand, finding greater success with 20 wickets at 13.65 including a five-wicket haul. This, coming in the second Test, took Willis past 850 first-class wickets and 300 Test wickets. England won the series convincingly 3:1, and returned to New Zealand over the winter. In the drawn first Test, Willis overtook Fred Trueman's record England tally of 307 Test wickets when he dismissed Lance Cairns in the first innings. England lost the second Test by an innings despite 4/51 from Willis. With the third Test ending as a draw, England lost the series. Willis, with increasing physical and mental weariness and now using hypnotherapy to reduce stress and focus his game, took three wickets in the following ODI series, in which England beat New Zealand 2:1.

England played a three-Test series against Pakistan in early 1984, however Willis was unable to contribute more than two wickets in the first match due to injury. He made only five County Championship appearances, taking only nine wickets at 42.22. Willis, with pressure mounting due to injury and poor performances by the England team, was sacked as captain before the upcoming Test series against the West Indies, and replaced by Gower.

As a captain, Willis subsequently received a mixed assessment. Botham retained fond memories of Willis the player, but remarked that Willis found it difficult to captain him because the men were of similar age. Willis, often noted for his enthusiasm, became an "effective motivator" as a captain; however, he was "no outstanding tactical genius" and "towards the end his feelings bordered on disgust at the conviction that some of England's cricketers accepted failure too readily. Nor was he able to close himself off against media comment." He was also characterised as a loner in the game, and a reluctant captain grateful to be placed back within the ranks after repeated defeats while he was at the reins. His 18 Tests as England captain saw 7 victories, 5 defeats, and 6 draws, while he led England in 29 ODI matches, winning 16 and losing 13.

Willis played in the next Test series against the West Indies, taking two wickets in the first two matches. and before the last match played against Derbyshire for his county, taking three wickets. Willis took to the field on 12 July for the third Test and took only two wickets for 123 runs as the West Indies, particularly Michael Holding, "hammered" his bowling – Holding hit 59 from 55 deliveries. Willis conceded 40 more runs from eight overs in the second innings, which Wisden referred to as "the death throes" of his career. He announced his retirement from all cricket immediately after England's defeat, though leading Warwickshire in one last major event a few days later, the 1984 Benson & Hedges Cup final at Lord's, in which they were defeated by Lancashire.

He finished his career with 325 Test wickets, at the time second only to Dennis Lillee, and 899 wickets in all first-class matches. Only James Anderson, Ian Botham, and Stuart Broad have since surpassed his number of Test wickets for England. Willis also retains the world record for most Test wickets without a single 10-wicket haul

## Commentary

After retiring from playing cricket, Willis established himself as a television commentator on Sky. Willis appeared on BBC Television's cricket coverage between 1985 and 1987 as a summariser before joining Sky Sports in 1990. When Botham joined the Sky commentary team, Willis was often in partnership with him in the commentary box. Willis' "laconic style did not suit all" and he was dropped from the "front-line commentary duties". He also appeared on David Tomlinson's This Is Your Life in 1991, A Question of Sport in 2004 and 20 to 1 in 2005.

Willis worked for Sky Sports, largely commentating in the county game, where he was vocal on the need for changes in English cricket, particularly through a group of former players known as the Cricket Reform Group. He was critical of Mike Atherton during the England tour of Zimbabwe in 1997. In 2006, he criticised the then England coach Duncan Fletcher's practices, England's performance in the 2006-07 Ashes, and was vocal in calling for the retirement of out-of-form national captain Michael Vaughan in 2008.

Willis attracted detractors due to his somewhat melancholic style. The Independent commentated on the 1995 Texaco Trophy that Willis had "trenchant content, dismal delivery. As a player Willis had trouble getting to sleep. As a commentator he struggles to stay awake. His voice remains on one note – the drone of your neighbour's mower." CricInfo's launching of two polls on cricket commentary both returned negative views of Willis' "hyper-critical" commentary. Willis received only 15% of the vote, above only Dermot Reeve and Allott.

In later years, after he was sidelined as a front-line commentator, Willis appeared on Sky's The Verdict with Charles Colville and was still working for Sky until a few months before his death. Alan Tyers of The Daily Telegraph noted in Willis' obituary that "On Sky Sports Cricket's The Verdict show, Bob would deliver assessments of players and teams every bit as brutal as his genuinely rapid bowling once was. In his later years, his role was that of the fire and brimstone preacher, dishing out ferocious tongue-lashings to cricketers, umpires and administrators alike."

## Personal life

Willis married his first wife, Juliet Smail in 1980. They had a daughter born in 1984. He married his second wife, Lauren Clark, in 2014. Although born in Sunderland, Willis lived in Manchester as a youngster, and was a keen supporter of Manchester City F.C., having first attended a match at Maine Road in 1954, as well as seeing the 1955 FA Cup Final against Newcastle United.

Willis died on 4 December 2019, aged 70, "after a long illness". He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer three years previously. The Bob Willis Fund raises awareness of prostate cancer and money for research into the detection and diagnosis of it; Bob Dylan is an honorary patron.

## See also

- List of international cricket five-wicket hauls by Bob Willis

English cricketer (1949–2019)

Cricketers at the 1979 Cricket World Cup

Cricketers at the 1983 Cricket World Cup

England One Day International cricketers

Members of the Order of the British Empire

People educated at Royal Grammar School, Guildford