Jackie Grant

Appointed to the Test captaincy at the age of 23, Grant led the West Indies team on its first tour of Australia in 1930–31, and later to its first series victory, when it beat England in 1934–35.

He then undertook missionary work in Rhodesia, concentrating on the education and welfare of black Africans, until the Ian Smith government refused him permission to return to the country in 1975.

George and his twin sister Janet (who were always known in the family as Jack and Jill) were the eighth and ninth children; Rolph was the tenth.

[1] Grant attended Cambridge from 1926 to 1930 to study History and qualify as a teacher, with the intention of returning to Queen's Royal College to teach.

[5] In 1930, while in his final months at Cambridge, Grant was offered the captaincy of the West Indies Test team on its tour of Australia in 1930-31.

"[6] At the time the West Indian authorities considered it essential that the Test team be led by a white man, despite the fact that the top players were black, such as George Headley and Learie Constantine.

They regained some pride in the Fifth Test, when Grant's two well-timed declarations put Australia under pressure on a difficult pitch and the West Indies won in a close finish by 30 runs.

In the Second Test at Manchester he asked his fastest bowlers, Manny Martindale and Learie Constantine, to use bodyline tactics.

[19] He taught at Queen's Royal College until 1935, when he accepted an offer of the Principalship of Grenada Boys' Secondary School, where he stayed until 1943.

[22] Cricket had been introduced to the school in the 1930s, and Grant raised the status of the game among the black population around Durban and made Adams College a centre for the sport.

[23] Adams College faced major opposition from the National Party government, especially after the Bantu Education Act came into force.

The government wanted black students to be prepared for menial jobs under white bosses, and this was the opposite of what Adams College was trying to achieve.

The minister allowed the nearby Inanda Seminary School for girls to operate outside the act, but in 1956, it got to an ultimatum and the staff refused to stop teaching academic and aspirational education.

Grant took a leading role in this service when he paraphrased Hugh Latimer to say: "Be of good comfort, Adams College.

In their work they frequently found themselves at odds with the colonial authorities in their attitudes to the position of blacks in Rhodesian society.

Grant had agreed to be Christian Aid secretary for the Cambridge area, but died suddenly in hospital there before he could begin, aged 71.

The 1930-31 West Indies team. Grant is in the middle, sitting between the older team management.