GF Grace's Death — Two Weeks After His Only Test, 1880

The Grace brothers were the most famous family in Victorian cricket. Their mother Martha had coached all five sons in the orchard at Downend. EM (born 1841), WG (1848) and Fred (1850) were the three first-class players; a fourth brother, Henry, played minor cricket. By 1880 the brothers were household names across the Empire.

Fred had been in good form during the 1880 season. His selection alongside WG and EM for the inaugural home Test was a family triumph. Through the three days at The Oval he made twin ducks but was central to England's win with the catch off Bonnor.

Fred Grace, born December 1850, was widely regarded as the most graceful batsman of the three brothers. He had captained the United South of England Eleven on its travelling missions and was a regular for Gloucestershire alongside WG and EM. When the inaugural home Test was scheduled for September 1880 at The Oval, all three brothers were named in England's XI.

In the match, Fred made 0 and a duck — his only Test scores. But he held what Barclay's Book of Cricket later called 'the most famous deep field catch in history': running back from long-on to take a steepling hit from the giant Australian batsman George Bonnor off Alfred Shaw, 115 yards from the bat. Bonnor and his partner had almost completed three runs by the time Fred Grace settled under it. 'My heart stopped beating as I went on waiting for the ball to come,' he later said.

During the second day's play Fred took a chill. He travelled the next week to Basingstoke for an exhibition match, slept in a damp bed at the Red Lion Hotel, and developed a fever. By 22 September he was dead, of what the death certificate called 'congestion of the lungs' — pneumonia in modern terms. He was 29.

WG Grace, who was playing in the same exhibition, was devastated. EM, the eldest, was stoic in public but reportedly never spoke of the loss. The cricketing world, which had only just celebrated three brothers playing for England together, was thrown into mourning.

“My heart stopped beating as I went on waiting for the ball to come.”

“The most famous deep field catch in history.”

WG Grace was inconsolable for months. He had captained Gloucestershire alongside Fred for years and the loss left a permanent gap in his life and the side. EM, who outlived both his brothers, succeeded WG as the Gloucestershire patriarch.

The death prompted concern among Victorian sports doctors about the risks of damp pavilions and travelling fixtures. Fred became one of the first famous English sportsmen to die in his prime, and his story is a regular fixture in cricket histories of the 1880s.