Sam Gravenall Explained

Sam Gravenall
Fullname:Samuel Boyd Gravenall
Birth Date:18 July 1885
Birth Place:Melbourne, Victoria
Death Place:Wandsworth, London, England
Originalteam:Wesley College, Melbourne
Position:Forward
Statsend:1927
Years1:1903, 1906, 1910
Club1:St Kilda
Games Goals1:30 (15)
Coachyears1:1922
Coachclub1:Essendon
Coachgames Wins1:12 (7–4–1)
Coachyears2:1927
Coachclub2:Subiaco
Coachgames Wins2:19 (10–9–0)

Samuel Boyd Gravenall (18 July 1885  - 8 March 1948),[1] variously known as "Sam Gravenall" and "Boyd Gravenall", was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Family

The son of Samuel Boyd Gravenall (1862–1941), and Ida Tily Gravenall (1868–1945), née Browne,[2] Samuel Boyd Gravenall was born on 18 July 1885.

He married Jane "Jennie" Godolphin Oats (1888–1940), at Prahran, Victoria on 6 July 1910.[3] [4] They had three children: Betty (1913–),[5] [6] and Donald William Gravenall (1917–1990), who became a respected swimming coach,[7] [8] [9] and Barbara Ida (1927–1956).[10]

Education

He entered Melbourne's Wesley College at the age of 14, having won a Government scholarship.[11]

Football

From Wesley College, Melbourne,[12] Gravenall was a forward and had his first season at St Kilda in 1903. He didn't appear for the club again until 1906 and the following year went to Western Australia, who he represented at the inaugural Melbourne Carnival. After 41 games for North Fremantle he returned to Melbourne, where he was employed as a sports master at Wesley College. He played for St Kilda in 1910, and served as the team's captain.

Lawrence Adamson

Due to his strongly held views on the values inherent in amateur sport, and his disdain for the increasing professionalism of the Victorian Football League, Wesley's headmaster, Lawrence Adamson, who'd been educated at Rugby School in England, controversially refused to allow Gravenall to continue to play VFL football in 1911.[13] [14] [15]

As a consequence, Gravenell retired as a VFL footballer at the end of the 1910 season; however, he did continue to play football, playing with Collegians Football Club, the Wesley College Old Boys' team, in the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association (MAFA).[16]

Coaching

He coached Essendon for 12 games in the 1922 VFL season, and for the 1927 season coached WAFL club Subiaco, who had played off in the previous three grand finals but only reached fourth.

He was the coach of the New South Wales team at the August 1933 Australian National Football Carnival, held in Sydney;[17] and "there is little doubt that had … Mr. S.B. Gravenall, himself an interstate player, … had the full team together for a longer period, its performance would have been even better than they have been".[18]

After football

A larger than life character, in 1928 he was sentenced to six months in jail for contracting a debt of £125 without reasonable or probable grounds of being able to pay it.[19]

In 1941, he was working in London as an Air Raid Warden.[20]

Death

Gravenall died in London in 1948.[21] [22]

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sam Gravenall - Player Bio. Australian Football. 27 December 2014.
  2. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/44831188 Deaths: Gravenall, The West Australian, (Thursday, 2 November 1945), p. 1.
  3. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26262198 Marriages: Gravenall—Oats, The West Australian, (Saturday, 9 July 1910), p. 1.
  4. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46738390 Deaths: Gravenall, The West Australian, (Tuesday, 17 September 1940), p. 1
  5. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/7281619 Births: Gravenall, The Argus, (Saturday, 27 September 1913), p. 11.
  6. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46423527 Personal, The West Australian, (Saturday, 9 September 1939), p. 12
  7. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/1629593 Births: Gravenall, The Argus, (Saturday, 30 June 1917), p. 13.
  8. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59511429 For Europe, The (Perth) Sunday Times, (Sunday, 6 March 1949), p. 6
  9. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26657126 Swim Stars Get "Tuned Up", The (Hobart) Mercury, (Friday, 9 December 1949), p. 20
  10. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/37668577 Births: Gravenall, The Western Mail, (Thursday, 20 October 1927), p. 37.
  11. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/210405818 Gravenall: An Eastern Pen Sketch, The (Perth) Call, (Friday, 30 JUne 1922), p. 8.
  12. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/127917474 'Waler', "Star Schoolboy Athlete: S.B. Gravenall, of Wesley, Senior Footballer at 15", The Referee, (Wednesday, 8 November 1922), p. 13.
  13. Nielsen, Erik, Sport and the British World, 1900–1930: Amateurism and National Identity in Australasia and Beyond, Palgrave Macmillan, (Basingstoke), 2014, p. 49.
  14. Crawford, Ray, "Athleticism, Gentlemen and Empire in Australian Public Schools: L.A. Adamson and Wesley College, Melbourne", in Vamplew, Wray (ed.), Sport and Colonialism in 19th Century Australasia: ASSH Studies in Sports History: No. 1, Australian Society of Sports Historians, (Campbelltown), 1986, pp. 42–64.
  15. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61608877 A Debasing Sport: How Football is Played, The Clarence and Richmond Examiner, (Thursday 11 May 1911), p. 8
  16. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/242843034 Metropolitan Association, The (Melbourne) Herald, (Friday, 11 August 1911), p. 2.
  17. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231435537 Fine Team Has Been Chosen, The (Sydney) Sun, (Tuesday, 4 July 1933), p. 3
  18. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/135314143 'Carperry', "National Code's Splendid 'Show' Week: Game is Faster than Before: Weaker States Show Pleasing Development in Finer Points: Uniform Standard Being Attained", The Referee, (Thursday, 10 August 1933), p. 1.
  19. News: THE BLASTED CAREER OF GRAVENALL . Truth . 1280 . Perth, Western Australia . 18 March 1928 . 7.
  20. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59151690 Former W.A. Footballer Dodging Bombs, The (Perth) Sunday Times,, (Sunday, 13 April 1941), p. 19.
  21. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59462976 Passing of S.B. Gravenall, The (Perth) Sunday Times, (Sunday, 14 March 1948), p. 10.
  22. News: The Great Men of "Norths" . Western Mail . 66 . 3,748 . Western Australia . 26 April 1951 . 57.

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