Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Grace, William Gilbert
GRACE, WILLIAM GILBERT (1848–1915), cricketer, was born 18 July 1848, the fourth of five sons of Henry Mills Grace, a doctor living at Downend, near Bristol, by his wife, Martha, daughter of George Pocock, proprietor of a boarding school at St. Michael’s Mill, Bristol. He was educated privately, at Bristol Medical School, and at St. Bartholomew’s and Westminster Hospitals; and, after qualifying M.R.C.S. (England) and L.R.C.P. (Edinburgh), began to practise as a surgeon in Bristol (1879).
There was enthusiasm for cricket in Grace’s home; both his father and his uncle (Alfred Pocock) were keen exponents, and Grace and his brothers received much careful tuition in every branch of the game. They joined in local matches at an early age, and the third son, Edward Mills Grace [q.v.], brought the family name into first-class cricket about 1862. With reference to his success, his mother, an enthusiast and a competent judge, said that she had a younger son who would be a better batsman because his back-play was sounder. This forecast was soon fulfilled, and in 1865 Gilbert Grace, as he was usually called, was chosen, while still under seventeen, to play for the Gentlemen v. the Players both at Kennington Oval and at Lord’s. In the first match (3 July) he went in eighth and made 23, and, not out, 12. Though played, it is said, more for his bowling than his batting, he was sent in first at Lord’s in the following week, and his second innings of 34 helped the Gentlemen, who had not beaten the Players since 1853, to a victory by eight wickets.
Grace was famous chiefly as a batsman, but he was first-rate both as a bowler and a fieldsman. Originally a medium pace bowler, he afterwards adopted a slower delivery, and took many wickets. Some of his greatest batting feats were followed up by bowling which, if not equally good, was equally successful. His bowling was often freely hit, but he never lost his length, and persevered with an optimism which, when he himself was captain, was thought at times to be scarcely warranted. His fielding, when he was a tall and athletic youth, was admirable in any position, but especially to his own bowling. In later life his massive figure is recalled at point, where little escaped his large and capable hands. As a captain, though he lacked the special gifts of a man like Vyell Edward Walker [q.v.], he was a keen leader and inspired his side with much of his own spirit.
It was in 1866, when he made 224, not out, for England against Surrey, and 173, not out, for Gentlemen of the South against Players of the South, that Grace opened the long series of extraordinary scores, which gave him an unchallenged position in cricket history. Between 1868 and 1876, judged by the evidence of statistics, he stood out by himself as a run-getter. Indeed, he completely altered the standard of scoring. Before his day a score of 50 on the rough wickets of the time was noteworthy, and a century the rarest event. In 1871, one of his best seasons, Grace, in addition to other substantial scores, made over 200 twice, and over 100 eight times. To cite one or two of many remarkable performances: on 29 June 1868, playing for the Gentlemen at Lord’s, Grace went in first wicket down, and made, not out, 134, out of a total of 201; the next highest score in the match was 29; the ground was difficult, and he had to meet some of the best professional bowlers, but this youth of nineteen was master of the attack throughout, and hardly a ball passed his bat. In 1871, for South v. North at the Oval, and for the Gentlemen v. the Players at Brighton, he had each time the unusual experience of losing his wicket in the first over of the match, once bowled by, and once leg before to the Nottinghamshire professional, J. C. Shaw: in the second innings at the Oval he made 268 and at Brighton 217. To Shaw is ascribed an epigrammatic description (divested of some adverbial adornment) of Grace’s batting: ‘I puts the ball where I likes, and Grace, he puts it where he likes.’.
Batting so far in advance of anything yet seen created a sensation in cricket circles. In the North there was intense eagerness to see Grace play. He paid his first visit to Sheffield in July 1869, when he made 122 for the South against the North. In July 1872 he came again, with the Gloucestershire eleven, and an enormous crowd packed the ground. Yorkshire, always one of the strongest counties, had some of the best bowlers of the day, but the first Gloucestershire wicket did not fall till 238, when Grace was out for 150. His success was continuous until 1874, and, though he was not so fortunate in the wet summer of 1875, in the following season he reached what was perhaps the zenith of his form. He made, not out, 400 in a match against odds at Grimsby, and in August he scored in three consecutive first-class matches, 344, 177, and, not out, 318.
During this, the first period of his career, Grace played in all sorts of cricket, and as a match-winner he was certainly worth half a side. His name is seldom to be found in a losing team. The Gentlemen could now almost always defeat the Players, and the Marylebone Club, of which Grace became a member in 1869, was, when he played, a formidable combination. In 1870, with two of his brothers, Edward Mills Grace and George Frederick Grace, he started the Gloucestershire county eleven, which, relying entirely upon amateur talent, was for some seasons one of the strongest county sides. Grace and his brother, E. M., were long associated with Gloucestershire cricket, but the youngest brother, G. F. Grace, an accomplished and popular player, died in 1880.
After 1877, though he remained the best batsman in England, Grace’s supremacy was not so clearly marked. With improved wickets batting improved generally, and other experts came into prominence, such as Arthur Shrewsbury [q.v.], William Lloyd Murdoch [q.v.], Allan Gibson Steel [q.v.], and Walter William Read [q.v.]. The position of English cricket was now disputed by powerful elevens from Australia. Grace made, in 1880, 152 in the first match played in this country between England and Australia, and he was a member of the side which lost to Australia in 1882 at the Oval by 7 runs. He visited Australia twice, once in the winter of 1873, when Australian cricket was still in the stage of development, and eighteen years afterwards with the team taken out by the third Earl of Sheffield [q.v.] in the winter of 1891. Though he was over forty the trip was for him a personal success. He also went to the United States and Canada with a team of amateurs in 1872.
In 1895, thirty years after his entry into first-class cricket, Grace made a striking return to the form of his best days. At the beginning of the season he scored 288 for Gloucestershire. against Somerset, his hundredth century in first-class cricket, and a few days later 257 and, not out, 73 against Kent. On the latter occasion he opened the first innings and was out last, and so was in the field during all three days of the match, a feat of endurance remarkable for a man who was nearly forty-seven years old. In this summer he reached his thousand runs as early as 30 May. Much public enthusiasm was shown. The Prince of Wales wrote to compliment him, and a shilling subscription fund, opened by the Daily Telegraph, resulted in the presentation to him of more than £5,000. Other testimonials were raised, banquets were given to him, and a suggestion was made in the press that his name should appear in the honours list.
Grace had another good season in 1896 when he played an innings of over 300, and one of over 200, for his county. In 1898 the Gentlemen v. Players match was fixed for 18 July in honour of his birthday. Though lame and injured he made 43 and 31, and the appearance of the ‘Old Man’, as cricketers now termed him, was the signal for even a louder tumult of cheers than usual. In 1899 he played for England for the last time, and made his last appearance for the Gentlemen at Lord’s, though he afterwards played for them at the Oval. Though scoring less freely, and moving much less quickly between the wickets, he was still good enough for most elevens, and there was some regret that at this time he should have severed his long connexion with Gloucestershire, in order to take up the position of manager of cricket at the Crystal Palace. He played there for some years more, as well as in other matches. In 1908 a single appearance at the Oval brought his first-class cricket to a close. During his career of forty-three years he had made 126 centuries, had scored 54,896 runs, and had taken 2,876 wickets.
Grace’s style of batting was solid and efficient. The bat looked curiously light in his hands, an impression created probably by the ease with which he wielded it. His defence was always first-rate: he watched the ball closely, and though at his best he was more comfortable with fast than with slow bowling, he was quick on his feet for so heavy a man. Like other famous executants he was more occupied with practice than theory, and, according to a contemporary anecdote, his contribution to a technical discussion on forward and back play was confined to an explanation that his own plan was to put the bat against the ball. While he was master of all the usual scoring strokes, his placing on the leg side was specially noted for its accuracy and power. He made runs more quickly on some days than others, and seldom sacrificed his wicket by recklessness. Above all, his energy and enthusiasm were surprising; indeed, in the days before boundaries, when all hits were run out, his huge scores were only possible to a combination of zeal and fitness, which enabled him to bat for hours without any feeling of weariness, physical or mental.
Grace, who kept up his medical practice in Bristol for twenty years (1879–1899), was much liked and esteemed. His personal ascendancy as a player, and the sternness with which he upheld the rigour of the game, made him at times a little assertive on the field. But no amount of fame or adulation was able to spoil him; and, long without a rival in his own sphere, he was quite without jealousy. A man of simple character, he was bluff and downright in manner, but his genuine kindness of heart won for him countless friends. He held a unique place in the national life. He was known to the public as ‘W.G.’ and was described as the ‘Champion’, a title which, while it had no official meaning, nobody disputed or wished to dispute. Prominent in an age when the cult of outdoor games was growing rapidly, contemporary opinion would have singled him out without hesitation as one of the best-known men in England. His burly figure and thick black beard were familiar far beyond the cricket field; his fame was celebrated constantly in prose and verse; he was the hero of anecdote and legend. It is true that when he died he was only a name to many, but a name that stood for all that was best and healthiest in open-air amusements, and his death, which took place at Eltham 23 October 1915, revived memories in strange contrast to the tragedy of the time.
Grace married in 1873 Agnes Nicholls Day, by whom he had three sons and one daughter. One of his sons, W. G. Grace, junior, who died as a young man, was in the Cambridge eleven in 1895 and 1896.
A portrait of Grace at the wicket was painted by Stuart Wortley for the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1890, and the club erected an entrance gateway in his memory in 1923. Another portrait was presented by the club to the National Portrait Gallery in 1926.
[Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack; Lord Hawke and others, The Memorial Biography of Dr. W. G. Grace, 1919; W. G. Grace, ‘W. G.’—Cricketing Reminiscences and Personal Recollections, 1899; W. G. Grace, W. G.’s Little Book, 1909.]