George Frederick Grace (13 December 1850 – 22 September 1880) was an English first-class cricketer active from 1866 to 1880 who played for Gloucestershire and the United South of England Eleven (USEE).

A right-handed batsman who bowled right arm fast roundarm, he appeared in 195 matches that are generally rated first-class for statistical purposes.

Like his brothers, Grace learned how to play cricket at home on a practice pitch that the family had created on the site of a former orchard.

His mother, Martha, was a keen participant too and she provided the driving force and the motivation which crystallised into the competitive edge that EM, WG and Fred always had as first-class players.

Alfred Pocock recognised this fault and decided that WG and Fred must learn to play straight by using small bats, suitable for their boyhood sizes.

It meant that WG and Fred became technically correct batsmen with strong defensive techniques whereas EM remained primarily an attacking batsman.

[7] It was in the Downend orchard and as members of their local cricket clubs that Grace and his brothers developed their skills, mainly under the tutelage of Alfred Pocock, who was an exceptional coach.

One of their regular activities, to help local farmers, was stone throwing at birds in the fields and WG later claimed that this was the source of their eventual skills as outfielders.

[17] It is generally agreed that the inaugural first-class match played by Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, per se, was against Surrey at Durdham Down, Clifton from Wednesday, 2 to Friday, 4 June 1870.

[18] The county club has always dated its foundation to 1870 (it celebrated its centenary in 1970) but its formal constitution was not completed until March 1871 when it finally merged with the Cheltenham and Gloucestershire.

On the final day, the North managed to avoid the innings defeat and amassed 289 (WG three for 83; Fred two for 61) to ensure a draw.

[22] There was always controversy surrounding Grace's elder brothers EM and WG about the money they, as nominal amateurs, made from cricket.

[25] In the aftermath of the Sydney Riot of 1879, cricketing relations between England and Australia were strained and the 1880 Australian tourists had difficulty arranging fixtures.

[27] Importantly for the Australians, Grace was a go-between from them to WG who, in the words of Malcolm Knox, "did not belong to (any Lord's) clique".

All the Grace brothers and Billy Midwinter played for Gloucestershire but, with eleven wickets, Fred Spofforth won the game for the Australians.

In the longer term, it convinced first the Graces and then Harris that international cricket was the way forward and negotiations began to ensure that such a match took place that summer.

[31] He made his mark on the match by holding a celebrated, and possibly match-winning, catch on the boundary in front of the gasometer at the Vauxhall End.

He returned home to Downend to try and recuperate but still had the cold on Tuesday, 14 September, when he travelled by train to Basingstoke as he was due to play in a benefit match at Winchester the following day.

He could not play in the benefit match because his condition had worsened and he became bed-ridden at the hotel where a doctor diagnosed a problem with his right lung.

The Times wrote: "His manly and straightforward conduct and genial manners won him not only popularity, but the esteem of hosts and friends".

He had a bad cold before he left home, and on my arrival at Basingstoke he told me that he had received another chill whilst waiting at Reading Station.

By inserting this you will greatly oblige me, and also do justice to the members of a family whose attention and kindness to my cousin all through his illness could not have been surpassed had he been at home".

[35] As a team, Gloucestershire declined in the 1880s following its heady success in the 1870s and one of the stated reasons for this was Fred Grace's early death, there being a view that "the county was never quite the same without him".

[36] Writing about the Graces in Barclays World of Cricket, Ronald Mason said of Fred that he "is visible only as through a glass darkly, as after a youth of great promise and pride he was smitten with sudden illness and died (aged only 29)".