News

GCCC Heritage Trust Acquires Archive of Letters Written by WG Grace

21 December 2022

GCCC Heritage Trust is pleased to announce that it has acquired a significant archive of sixteen letters from WG Grace written between 1894 and 1901 to COH Sewell, who played for Gloucestershire from 1895 until the outbreak of war in 1914, captaining the side in 1913 and 1914, and to Sewell’s uncle, Edward, a solicitor in Cirencester, to whom Cyril was articled, eventually going into partnership with him.

South African born Cyril - his father, also originally from Cirencester and who had played cricket for Middlesex, had emigrated to South Africa in 1869 - had returned to England in 1894 with the touring South African cricketers during which he played for the tourists against Gloucestershire. Following the tour he stayed in England to study to become a solicitor and to continue his cricket career.

The letters themselves are an interesting commentary on the cricket of the day. Letters to uncle Edward discuss Cyril’s residential status for him to be able to play for Gloucestershire and Grace dismisses the possibility of Cyril playing under an assumed name.

Grace had severed his connection with Gloucestershire in May 1899 after falling out with the Committee following his agreement to move to London to take on the management of the newly created London County Cricket Club. In his resignation letter he had expressed his contempt for the Committee, although not for the County of his birth, and in one letter to Cyril in July that year he repeats the sentiments “they [the committee] cannot speak the truth, they are a bad lot, and the less you have to do with them, the better for you”

The acquisition has been made possible through donations made to the Trust in memory of the late Rex Body, a former Chairman and President of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and Chairman of GCCC Heritage Trust, who sadly passed away in October.

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