28 July 2012 :: Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers was born on 28th July 1936. He is a former cricketer who captained West Indies. His first name of Garfield is variously abbreviated as Gary or Garry. He is widely regarded as one of cricket’s greatest ever all-rounders, having excelled at all the essential skills of batting, bowling and fielding. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1975 for his services to cricket. He became a dual Barbadian-Australian citizen through marriage in 1980. By an act of Parliament in 1998, Sobers was named as one of the ten National Heroes of Barbados.
Sobers was born Garfield St Aubrun Sobers on 28 July 1936 to Shamont and Thelma Sobers of Walcott Avenue, Bay Land, St Michael, Bridgetown, Barbados, and was the fifth of six children. At birth he had two extra fingers, one on each hand, which he removed himself during childhood with the aid of catgut and a sharp knife. Sobers was only five when his father died at sea in January 1942, after his ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat. He married Pru Kirby, an Australian, in September 1969. They had two sons, Matthew and Daniel, and an adopted daughter, Genevieve. The marriage ended in divorce in 1990 after the couple broke up in 1984; however, Sobers acquired dual Australian citizenship through marriage in 1980.
