Peter Barker Howard May (31 December 1929 – 27 December 1994) was an English cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club, Cambridge University and England. Already a cricketing prodigy during his school days, May played his entire cricket career as an amateur, and was regarded by many players and fans as England's finest batsman in the post-war era. Described in his Wisden obituary as "tall and handsome with a batting style that was close to classical, and... the hero of a generation of school boys", May was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1981, and posthumously inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009. Wisden Cricketer's Almanack described May as a "schoolboy prodigy" who went on to become "one of England’s finest batsmen". Early career Born in Reading, Berkshire, he was educated at Leighton Park junior school, Charterhouse and Pembroke College, Cambridge, and at both he was regarded as a batting prodigy. Across the 1950s, he was the most consistent and prolific English batsman in both county (representing Surrey) and Test cricket. He made his Test match debut against South Africa at Headingley in 1951, scoring 138, and was then a regular England player until forced out by illness in the early 1960s. May was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1952. May was the natural successor to Leonard Hutton as England captain after the successful defence of the Ashes on the 1954–55 tour of Australia. Captaincy May enjoyed a largely successful captaincy of both his county and country. Surrey had been County Champions for seven years running, with May the captain for the last two seasons, and until 1958 England was never defeated under his leadership. He had beaten South Africa 3–2 in 1955, considered by many to have been the most exciting Test series since the war, Australia 2–1 in 1956, the West Indies 3–0 in 1957 and New Zealand 4–0 in 1958. He was widely regarded as the best post-war batsman England produced, tall, strong and disciplined with a near-perfect technique, a straight bat and a complete range of strokes. His standards improved with the responsibilities of captaincy and his Test average as captain was 54.03. His highest score was at Edgbaston in 1957, when England trailed West Indies by 288 runs in the first innings; he made 285 not out, the highest score by an