Born of missionary parents in the Far East, where his father became the first Bishop of West China, Harold Cassels, was sent to England for his schooling. At St. Lawrence College, Ramsgate, Cassels became school captain, football and hockey team captains and vice-captain of cricket. He left St. Lawrence in the spring of 1917 and enlisted as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. He was Mentioned in Despatches at the age of 19 before becoming a prisoner of war. In 1919 Cassels entered Queen’s College, Cambridge, where he won a hockey blue playing against Oxford at left-half in 1920 and centre-half in 1921. It was during this period that he joined the England squad for the 1920 Olympic Games, the only time he was selected to play at international level. On graduate from Cambridge, Cassels returned to China and became the senior master at the Cathedral School in Shanghai before leaving for Australia in 1940. He returned to England in 1946 and spent two years lecturing troops in the Middle East before becoming a house master at Millfield School.
Great Britain