Editing W. G. Grace (section)

==Early years==
===Family===
{{Main|Grace family}}
Grace was born in [[Downend, South Gloucestershire|Downend]], near [[Bristol]], on 18 July 1848 at his parents' home, Downend House, and was baptised at the local church on 8 August.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=16}} He was called Gilbert in the family circle, except by his mother, who apparently called him Willie,{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=16}} but otherwise, as "WG", he was universally known by his initials. His parents were Henry Mills Grace and Martha (''née'' Pocock), who were married in Bristol on Thursday, 3 November 1831 and lived out their lives at Downend, where Henry Grace was the local [[General Practitioner|GP]].{{sfn|Rae|1998|pp=9–11}} Downend is near [[Mangotsfield]] and, although it is now a suburb of Bristol, it was then a detached village surrounded by countryside, and about four miles from Bristol.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=11}} Henry and Martha Grace had nine children in all. Biographer [[Simon Rae]] commented that this was "the same number as [[Queen Victoria|Victoria]] and [[Albert, Prince Consort|Albert]]—and in every respect they were the typical Victorian family".{{sfn|Rae|1998|pp=12–13}} Grace was the eighth child in the family; he had three older brothers, including [[E. M. Grace|Edward]] (always known as "EM"), and four older sisters. The ninth child was his younger brother [[Fred Grace|Fred]], born in 1850.{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|pp=9–10}}

===Education===
Grace was "notoriously unscholarly".{{sfn|Rae|1998|pp=21–22}} His first schooling was with a Miss Trotman in Downend village and then with a Mr Curtis of Winterbourne.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=21}} He subsequently attended a [[day school]] called Ridgway House, run by a Mr Malpas, until he was fourteen. One of his schoolmasters, David Bernard, later married Grace's sister Alice.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=21}} In 1863, Grace was taken seriously ill with [[pneumonia]] and his father removed him from Ridgway House. After this illness, Grace grew rapidly to his full height of 6&nbsp;ft 2&nbsp;in (1.88 m).{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=38}} He continued his education at home where one of his tutors was the Reverend John Dann, the Downend [[parish church]] curate; like Mr Bernard before him, Mr Dann became Grace's [[brother-in-law]], marrying Blanche Grace in 1869.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=39}}

Grace never went to university because his father wanted him to pursue a [[physician|medical career]]. Nevertheless, Grace received approaches from both [[Oxford University Cricket Club]] and [[Cambridge University Cricket Club]]. In 1866, when he played a match at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], one of the Oxford players, [[Edmund Carter (cricketer, born 1845)|Edmund Carter]], tried to interest him in becoming an [[undergraduate education|undergraduate]].{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=63}} Then, in 1868, Grace received overtures from [[Caius College]], [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], which had a long medical tradition.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=78}} Grace said he would have gone to either Oxford or Cambridge if his father had allowed it.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=78}} Instead, he enrolled at [[Bristol Medical School]] in October 1868, when he was 20.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=78}}

Grace's entire life, including his [[cricket]] and medical careers, is inseparable from his [[Grace family|close-knit family background]] which was strongly influenced by his father, who set great store by qualifications and determination to succeed. Henry, whose medical qualifications were Licenciate of the [[Worshipful Society of Apothecaries|Society of Apothecaries]] (LSA) in 1828 and [[Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons]] (MRCS) in 1830, passed this purposeful attitude on to each of his five sons.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=3}} Therefore, like his father and his brothers, Grace chose a professional career in medicine—because of his cricketing commitments, however, he did not complete his qualification as a [[doctor of medicine|doctor]] until 1879, when he was 31 years old.{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|p=75}}

===Development as a cricketer===
[[File:William Gilbert Grace, Vanity Fair, 1877-06-09.jpg|thumb|upright|An 1877 illustration of Grace by [[Leslie Ward]] in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' emphasises his trademark beard and MCC cap.]]
Grace began his ''Cricketing Reminiscences'' (1899) by answering a question he had frequently been asked—"was he born a cricketer"? His answer was in the negative because he believed that "cricketers are made by coaching and practice", though he added that if he was not born a cricketer, he was born "in the atmosphere of cricket".{{sfn|Grace|1899|p=1}} His father and mother were "full of enthusiasm for the game" and it was "a common theme of conversation at home".{{sfn|Grace|1899|p=2}} In 1850, when WG was two and Fred was expected, the family moved to a nearby house called "The Chesnuts" which had a sizeable orchard and Henry Grace organised clearance of this to establish a [[cricket pitch|practice pitch]].{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|p=12}} All nine children in the Grace family, including the four daughters, were encouraged to play cricket although the girls, along with the dogs, were required for [[fielding (cricket)|fielding]] only.{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|p=11}} Grace claimed that he first handled a [[cricket bat]] at the age of two.{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|pp=11–12}}

It was in the Downend orchard and as members of their local cricket clubs that he and his brothers developed their skills, mainly under the tutelage of their uncle, Alfred Pocock, who spent long hours [[coach (sport)|coaching]] them at Downend.{{sfn|Altham|1962|p=124}}{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=15}} EM, who was seven years older than WG, had always played with a full size bat and so developed a tendency, that he never lost, to hit across the line, the bat being too big for him to "play straight". Pocock recognised this problem and determined that WG and Fred should not follow suit. He therefore fashioned smaller bats for them, to suit their sizes, and they were taught to play straight and "learn defence, with the left shoulder well forward", before attempting to hit.{{sfn|Altham|1962|p=124}} Apart from his cricket and his schooling, Grace lived the life of a country boy and roamed freely with the other village boys. One of his regular activities was stone throwing at birds in the fields and he later claimed that this was the source of his eventual skill as an outfielder.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=21}}

Henry Grace founded Mangotsfield Cricket Club in 1845 to represent several neighbouring villages including Downend.{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|p=12}} In 1846, this club merged with the West Gloucestershire Cricket Club whose name was adopted until 1867; it has been said that the Grace family ran the West Gloucestershire "almost as a private club".{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=15}} Henry Grace managed to organise matches against [[Lansdown Cricket Club]] in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], which was the premier West Country club. West Gloucestershire fared poorly in these games and, sometime in the 1850s, Henry Grace and Alfred Pocock decided to join Lansdown, although they continued to run the West Gloucestershire and this remained their primary club.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=34}}

Grace recorded in his ''Reminiscences'' that he saw his first "great" cricket match in 1854 when he was barely six years old, the occasion being a game between [[William Clarke's All-England Eleven]] (the AEE) and twenty-two of West Gloucestershire. He first played for the West Gloucestershire club himself as early as 1857, when he was nine years old, and he had eleven innings in 1859.{{sfn|Grace|1899|p=8}} The first time he made a substantial score was in July 1860 when he scored 51 for West Gloucestershire against Clifton—forty years later, he said no innings ever gave him more pleasure.{{sfn|Grace|1899|pp=8–9}}

It was through Grace's elder brother EM, however, that the family name first became famous. Their mother, Martha, wrote the following in a letter to [[William Clarke (cricketer, born 1798)|William Clarke]]'s successor [[George Parr (cricketer)|George Parr]] in 1860 or 1861:{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=42}}

<blockquote>I am writing to ask you to consider the inclusion of my son, E. M. Grace—a splendid hitter and most excellent catch—in your England XI. I am sure he would play very well and do the team much credit. It may interest you to learn that I have another son, now twelve years of age, who will in time be a much better player than his brother because his back stroke is sounder, and he always plays with a straight bat.</blockquote>

Grace was just short of his thirteenth birthday when, on 5 July 1861, he made his debut for Lansdown and played two matches that month.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=34}} EM had made his debut in 1857, aged sixteen.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=34}} In August 1862, aged 14, Grace played for West Gloucestershire against a Devonshire team.{{sfn|Altham|1962|p=125}} A year later, following the bout of pneumonia which had left him bed-ridden for several weeks, he scored 52 [[not out]] and took five [[wicket]]s to help Gentlemen of Gloucestershire defeat Gentlemen of Somerset by 87 [[run (cricket)|runs]] at the Sydenham Field ground in Bath.{{sfn|Altham|1962|p=125}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/246/246378.html |title=Gentlemen of Somerset v Gentlemen of Gloucestershire in 1863 |work=CricketArchive |url-access=subscription |access-date=26 December 2024}}</ref> Soon afterwards, he was one of four family members who played for a Bristol and Didcot XVIII against the All-England Eleven. He scored 32 off the bowling of [[John Jackson (cricketer, born 1833)|John Jackson]], [[George Tarrant]], [[Cris Tinley]], and [[Ned Willsher]]—before Tinley [[bowled]] him. EM took ten wickets in the match, which Bristol and Didcot won by an innings, and as a result EM was invited to tour Australia a few months later with [[English cricket team in Australia in 1863–64|George Parr's England team]].{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|pp=21–22}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/194/194546.html |title=Bristol and Didcot XVIII v All-England Eleven in 1863 |work=CricketArchive |url-access=subscription |access-date=26 December 2024}}</ref>

EM did not return from Australia until July 1864 and his absence presented Grace with an opportunity to appear on cricket's greatest stages.{{sfn|Grace|1891|p=15}} He and his elder brother Henry were invited to play for the South Wales team which had arranged a series of matches in London and Sussex, though Grace wondered humorously how they were qualified to represent South Wales.{{sfn|Grace|1891|p=15}} It was the first time that Grace left the West Country and he made his debut appearances at both [[The Oval]] and [[Lord's]].{{sfn|Rae|1998|pp=50–51}}

Besides his cricketing skills, Grace was an outstanding [[sport of athletics|athlete]] as a young man and took part in several meetings. He threw a [[cricket ball]] {{convert|122|yd|m}} during a [[track and field|field event]] at Eastbourne.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=69}} He won the {{convert|440|yd|m}} [[hurdling]] title at the National Olympian Games at Crystal Palace in August 1866,{{sfn|Altham|1962|p=125}} and claimed the silver medal in the quarter-mile event at the [[1869 AAC Championships]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nuts.org.uk/Champs/AAA/index.htm |title=AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists |work=National Union of Track Statisticians |access-date=20 July 2024}}</ref> Also, Grace is known to have played [[association football|football]] for the [[Wanderers F.C.|Wanderers]], although he did not feature in any of their [[FA Cup]]-winning teams.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cavallini |first=Rob |title=The Wanderers F.C.: Five-time F.A. Cup winners |publisher=Dog N Duck Publications |year=2005 |page=37 |isbn=978-0-9550496-0-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02hhzb7 |title=Sportshour: The FA Cup's Harlem Globetrotters |work=BBC World Service |date=23 January 2015 |access-date=7 April 2016}}</ref>