Tom Graveney

Early life

Graveney was born in Riding Mill, near Hexham, Northumberland, one of five children of Jack and Mary Graveney. His father worked as an engineer for Vickers Armstrong in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. After Jack's death in 1933, Mary married another engineer, and the family moved to Lancashire and then to Bristol in 1938 so that Graveney's step-father could work at Avonmouth Docks. He attended Bristol Grammar School, excelling at cricket, hockey, rugby and golf.

He began work as an accountant but left after a few days to join the Army in 1946, following his elder brother Ken. He served in Suez with the Gloucestershire Regiment as a second lieutenant and later became a captain in the sports depot. While playing cricket on concrete pitches in Egypt, he shifted from bowling to batting. On home leave in August 1947, he played benefit matches for Gloucestershire at Ken's suggestion and was offered a contract for £200 annually, which he accepted.

Cricketing career

Graveney's first first-class match for Gloucestershire was against Oxford University Cricket Club in April 1948, where he failed to score; he became a regular later that season. He was 12th man when Gloucestershire faced the 1948 Australian touring team, known as the Invincibles, who scored 783 for 6. In 1949 he scored 1,784 runs and was mentioned as a potential England player. After an injury to Denis Compton, Graveney was selected for the Old Trafford Test against South Africa in 1951, scoring 15.

He was not chosen for the next Test but toured India and Pakistan in 1951–52 after scoring 2,291 runs for Gloucestershire that season. On that tour he scored his first Test century, 175 in eight hours in the second Test in Bombay, having missed the first due to dysentery. He established his place in the national team and was regarded as England's outstanding young batsman alongside Peter May. During the 1953 Ashes series, captain Len Hutton asked Graveney to stop attacking late on the second day at Lord's; Graveney was dismissed early the next morning for 78. England won the series and regained the Ashes. Graveney was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1953.

Post-cricket career

After his playing days ended, Graveney took on jobs like managing a squash club in Essex and running a pub in Prestbury, Gloucestershire. His wife Jackie noted that being a publican was the first real job he ever had. For years, 3D Cricket in Cheltenham offered indoor coaching sessions marketed as 'Tom Graveney cricket courses' for both young and adult players. He became a BBC television cricket commentator in 1979 and, in 2004, was the first ex-professional cricketer to be elected president of the Marylebone Cricket Club.

He also served as Worcestershire's president from 1994 to 1998. In 2009, he was one of the initial 55 inductees into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. His last cricket appearance came in 1995 for the Lord's Taverners, where he made just one run before being caught by David Frost off actor Robert Powell's bowling. He enjoyed golf with a single-figure handicap and built a large stamp collection, a hobby started while touring overseas.

Jackie, his wife since 1952, developed Alzheimer's; Graveney moved into her care home and stayed until her death in 2013. He died on 3 November 2015 at 88, a week after his brother Ken. They had two children, Tim and Rebecca.