E.M. Grace — The Coroner Who Was England's Best Bat Before His Brother, 1860s

The Grace family of Downend, Gloucestershire, was cricket-mad: the father, Henry, and the mother, Martha, both played and encouraged all their children. E.M. was the first to reach the highest level; W.G. followed but eclipsed him so thoroughly that E.M.'s own achievements were overshadowed.

E.M. Grace was born in 1841, four years before W.G., and made his first-class debut for Gloucestershire at seventeen. His batting was characterised by an upright stance, quick footwork and a willingness to drive and cut that was unusual in an era dominated by forward-play orthodoxy. His 192 not out for MCC against Kent in 1862 — scored after he also took ten wickets — was one of the great individual all-round performances of the pre-Test era. Unlike W.G., E.M. was also a brilliant close fielder, stationed at point where his catlike reflexes accounted for many wickets. His career was complicated by his work as a coroner in Bristol, which limited his availability for major fixtures; several times he arrived by overnight train for a championship match and scored a hundred before returning by evening for work. E.M.'s prominence in the early 1860s meant that when W.G. appeared in 1865 he was introduced as 'the youngest of the Grace brothers', a formulation that acknowledged how famous E.M. had already become.

“Had W.G. never been born, E.M. would be remembered today as the greatest cricketer of the nineteenth century.”

E.M. Grace continued playing first-class cricket alongside W.G. through the 1870s and was still an active county cricketer in the 1880s. He outlived his brother, dying in 1911.