Julien Cahn

Sir Julien Cahn, 1st Baronet (21 October 1882, Cardiff – 26 September 1944, Stanford Hall, Loughborough) was a businessman and cricket philanthropist.

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His cricket XI

Cahn inherited a fortune from his father and apart from his various business interests largely devoted his life to sport and philanthropy. He was an avid cricket supporter and founded the Sir Julien Cahn XI which he captained and played for. The Cahn XI went on many tours, including those to:

• Jamaica - 1929,
• Argentine - 1930,
• Denmark and Jutland - 1932, (see also R. P. Keigwin - who helped organise this tour)
• Canada, U.S.A. and Bermuda - 1933,
• Ceylon, Malaya and Singapore - 1937
• New Zealand - 1939.

Cahn was twice President of the Nottinghamshire club and he personally defrayed the cost of building new stands at Trent Bridge; he also provided a covered practice area, thus allowing county players to keep in training during the winter months.

As well his interest in playing he also represented Leicestershire on the Advisory County Cricket Committee and attended the meetings at Lord's dealing with the post-war plans. In addition to his cricket interest he was a keen hunter and was variously the Master of the:

• Burton Woodland,
• Pytchley and
• Fernie Hunts.

The family background

Cahn's father was a Jewish immigrant from Germany who before World War I founded the Nottingham Furnishing Company, a huge business. Cahn, seeing a new potential market in hire purchase sales, expanded the company to the extent that his Jays and Campbells stores were to be found in most major towns across Britain. By 1943 when he retired and sold out to Great Universal Stores (nowadays known as GUS), he controlled a chain of between 300 and 400 stores.

By the 1920s Cahn was a very wealthy man who enjoyed his money, spending it lavishly and generously. He fell in love with cricket when as a child he often sat under Parr's tree at Trent Bridge, listening to Arthur Shrewsbury

Later, in 1925 he joined the county committee at Nottinghamshire and his donations paid for:

• Much of the cost of a new scoreboard
• New indoor nets and
• Two new stands

In 1926 he finished building his new ground at West Bridgford, which included a luxurious pavilion which was used to house a collection of ancient bats and which if necessary could be converted into a badminton court.

In 1928 he bought Stanford Hall, near Loughborough, from Kathleen Kimball at a cost of £70,000. Here he built himself another cricket pitch, a nine-hole golf course, a bowling green and a large trout lake.

In 1934 Cahn was made Baronet Cahn of Stanford-upon-Soar for services to agriculture and several charitable causes.

Apart from cricket, his other great loves were hunting and magic and illusions. Between 1926 and 1935 was the master of the Burton foxhounds (founded 1672). According to one account, his enprmous wealth was seen as a godesend by the club. In his first year as master, he donated £500 towards replacing barbed wire with wooden fencing. He also gave prizemoney for the best-kept hedges. On hunt days, his party would arrive in a fleet of Rolls-Royces.

He was also an illusionist. In about 1936, he commissioned the interior-decorating firm J.E. Redding & Smith and the architect Cecil Aubrey Masey to design his own theatre where he could perform in front of his friends. Built at Stanford Hall, the theatre was described by the Loughborough Echo as "one of the most remarkable in this country. Its lighting, furnishing, and general appointments are delightful in every respect. The fittings are modern in the extreme". Among its features are a decorated safety curtain and a series of murals painted by Beatrice MacDermott. A Wurlitzer theatre organ was bought from the Madeleine Theatre in Paris. The theatre continues to be used to this day, for plays, operas, musicals and concerts by amateur and professional companies. Since World War II, the Festival Players have been the main company-in-residence.

After Cahn's death Stanford Hall estate was bought by the Co-operative Union Limited. It accommodated the Co-operative College, a residential training centre for students from Britain and many other countries. In 2001, Stanford Hall was sold to the property developer Raynsway.

Cahn married Phyllis Muriel Wolfe on July 11, 1916. They had three children, Patience Cahn (born 1922), Albert Jonas (1924) and Richard Ian (1927). Albert Jonas assumed the baronetcy on his father's death

Cricket was his love

Although privately formed, such was the strength and quality of the various teams that he assembled that several of their matches were accorded first-class status - thus allowing him in Kingston, Jamaica in March 1929 he made his first-class debut. Here he captained a team which included no less that eight Test cricketers - including Lord Tennyson and Andrew Sandham. Many years later, when his grandson visited the island he was introduced to an old Jamaican who, as a boy, had carried Cahn's bags and had been so taken with him that in his honour, he had changed his name to 'Julien Cahn'!

Although he was a first-class cricketer, he was also was a serious hypochondriac who would often use his electric wheelchair in preference to walking. He would think nothing of using his own private train to bring Lord Horder (the King's doctor) to Stanford Hall to attend to him.

Cahn suffered from brittle bones and as a result, he batted in specially made and inflatable pads which had to be inflated by his chauffeur. His umpire John Gunn is recorded as never having given him out by LBW - no doubt in a bid to keep the fixture.

It is recorded by Jim Swanton that "...the pads were very large, and the ball bounced readily off them for leg-byes, which the umpires conveniently forgot to signal". Also another player to appear at Stanford Hall, Philip Snow recalls playing there once when Cahn's pads deflated, "He'd no sooner come out to bat than there was a loud hissing noise. I liked him but he was a real autocrat, a martinet. He stalked off the pitch, sacked his chauffeur on the spot and declared the innings."

Cahn was also a keen bowler and throwing the ball high in the air - this often meant relying on the boundary fielders to take catches. One commentator said of his bowling style, "His bowling was not so much up and down as to and fro."

By the mid-1930s Cahn's cricket philanthropy had included the financially troubled Leicestershire. He also arranged for Stewie Dempster, the New Zealand batsman, to work as his business store manager in Leicester to allow him to captain the county. "At that time," Philip Snow remarks "Dempster was regarded as the best player of slow bowling in the world. He was incredibly quick on his feet."

Whilst Dempster was undoubtedly successful in playing for Leicester, scoring 4,659 runs at an average of 49.04 in 69 matches for the county^[1], Cahn had the irritating habit of requiring him to play for his own team which severely limited his Leicester appearances. In 1938, for example, Dempster played 14 of Nottinghamshire's 26 games in the County Championship^[2]. A similar thing was also experienced with Jack Walsh, who managed to take 216 wickets for Cahn's XI in 1938, but who in the same year was only released four times for county matches.

The power of his XIs

As result of both his financial pull and the colour of his cricket, his invitation teams were able to keep the loyalty of many of the top players - something that was often to the disadvantage of the establishment clubs.

Dempster, Walsh and Morkel's skill meant that they would be valuable members of any county team, as would the bowler Bob Crisp, who in 1935 alone took 107 wickets for the South Africans tourers. The Wicketkeeper Cecil Maxwell represented the Gentlemen against the Players in 1935 solely on the strength of his Cahn team performances.

Similarly both of the England legspinners Ian Peebles and Walter Robins played often at both West Bridgford and Stanford Hall. The Sir Julien Cahn's XIs were often too strong for their opposition - as illistrated by the fact that minor county sides were often beaten by an innings and at West Bridgford where a fox's tail was raised after a victorious match - the tail was rarely seen down.

References

Cricinfo, Sir Julien Cahn

A History of the Burton Hunt 1672-2004

History of Stanford Hall Theatre

Loughborough Cinemas/ Stanford Hall Theatre

The Peerage