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), atPrahran, 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]
FromWesley 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 inauguralMelbourne Carnival. After 41 games forNorth Fremantle he returned to Melbourne, where he was employed as a sports master atWesley College. He played for St Kilda in 1910, and served as the team's captain.
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 atRugby School in England, controversially refused to allow Gravenall to continue to play VFL football in 1911.[13][14][15]
He coachedEssendon for 12 games in the1922 VFL season, andfor 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 theAugust 1933 Australian National Football Carnival, held in Sydney;[19] 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".[20]
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.[21]
^Nielsen, Erik,Sport and the British World, 1900–1930: Amateurism and National Identity in Australasia and Beyond, Palgrave Macmillan, (Basingstoke), 2014, p. 49.
^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.
