When asked who he would prefer as his batting partner, WG Grace replied simply, 'Give me Arthur' — meaning Arthur Shrewsbury of Nottinghamshire. Shrewsbury was the best professional batsman of the 1880s, the leader of the 1881 Notts strike, the co-organiser of three private tours of Australia, and Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the inaugural 1890 list (the second list, for batsmen). He killed himself in 1903 aged 47, after years of paranoid hypochondria.
Notts in the 1880s was the strongest county side in England, winning four successive championships (1883-86). Shrewsbury was their batting cornerstone alongside William Barnes, William Scotton and Wilfred Flowers.
Shrewsbury and Shaw led the 1881 strike. Their subsequent tours of Australia gave Shrewsbury his Test reputation. By 1886 he was the senior English professional batsman.
Born in Nottingham in 1856, Shrewsbury made his Notts debut in 1875 and was a regular by 1880. By the mid-1880s he was widely regarded as the second-best batsman in England (and arguably the best on certain surfaces). His method was technical, defensive, deeply orthodox — the antithesis of Bonnor or even Grace. He was small (5 ft 5 in), neat, and famous for refusing to lift the ball off the ground.
His career batting average — 26.97 in first-class cricket and 35.47 in Tests — does not capture his stature. On the wet, treacherous pitches of the 1880s, when the average top-order batsman struggled to 20, Shrewsbury was several times the only player on either side to make 50.
The Grace quote 'Give me Arthur' (in answer to who he wanted as batting partner) became a public catchphrase and the title of Wynne-Thomas's standard biography. It captures the respect in which Grace, normally a difficult colleague, held Shrewsbury.
The end was sad. Shrewsbury suffered from anxiety and a conviction that he was incurably ill — an obsession that mounted through the 1890s. On 19 May 1903, at his sister's home in Gedling, Notts, he shot himself with a revolver. He was 47.
1875: Debuts for Nottinghamshire.
1881: Leads Notts strike with Shaw.
1881-82, 1884-85, 1886-87: Co-organises and plays in three Australian tours.
1886: Wisden Cricketer of the Year (first batsman listed, 1890).
1893: Last England Test.
1903: Shoots himself at age 47.
11 Apr 1856
Born in New Lenton, Nottingham.
1875
Debuts for Nottinghamshire.
1881
Co-leads Notts strike.
1886
Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
1893
Last Test.
19 May 1903
Shoots himself, aged 47.
“Give me Arthur.”
“One of the greatest professional batsmen the game has ever known.”
Shrewsbury's death stunned English cricket. Wisden's obituary described him as 'one of the greatest professional batsmen the game has ever known'. His Notts contemporaries — particularly Shaw and William Gunn — never quite recovered the same affection for the county.
The best English professional batsman of the 1880s — a small, technical, deeply orthodox craftsman whose 'Give me Arthur' epitaph from WG Grace was the highest praise the era could offer.
'Give me Arthur' is one of the most-quoted lines in 19th-century cricket. Shrewsbury sits alongside Grace and Bobby Abel as the foundational figures of Victorian batsmanship. Modern batsmen who specialise in difficult conditions — Geoffrey Boycott in the 1970s, Jonathan Trott in the 2010s — are sometimes called heirs to the Shrewsbury technical lineage.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.