 Appointed as Gloucestershire captain for the 1939 season , Hammond led the team to third in the County Championship and recorded a rare double victory over Yorkshire . While Wisden commended his adventurous style of leadership , others such as Basil Allen , his predecessor as captain , did not approve ; their main criticism was his failure to encourage his players . In first @-@ class cricket , he scored 2 @,@ 479 runs at an average of 63 @.@ 56 . He placed at the top of the first @-@ class averages for the seventh successive season , although some critics detected a decline in his abilities . While he led England to a 1 – 0 series victory over West Indies in three Tests , Wisden reported some criticism of his captaincy . R. C. Robertson @-@ Glasgow said that " Hammond does not rank among the more imaginative England captains " , although he concluded by defending Hammond as " experienced and sound " . In the second match , he took his 100th catch in Tests , and in the third , he scored 138 , his final Test century . In the series , Hammond scored 279 runs ( average 55 @.@ 80 ) . The impending war overshadowed much of the season ; throughout the Tests , Hammond made public appeals for citizens to join the armed forces . On the outbreak of the Second World War , he joined the services and was commissioned as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve ( RAFVR ) in October 1939 . 
