Parallel lives:
Gilbert and Gustav, Two Cotswold Lads Destined for Greatness. 

In the early 20^th century, two former Cheltenham Grammar School (CGS) boys born one hundred and fifty years ago whose paths would only briefly cross, gained national and international notoriety creating a legacy that still prevails today.

The Edwardian cricketer Gilbert Jessop produced an innings for England in the fifth test match at The Oval against the touring Australians, that is still unbeaten to this day and composer and musician Gustav von Holst completed the orchestration for his highly acclaimed ‘Planets Suite.’

Both had been born in Cheltenham in 1874 and entered the Grammar School [CGS] in the mid 1880’s and although they didn’t know it then, were each destined for greatness.

Gilbert’s interest in cricket had begun almost from the moment he learned to walk although neither his father or grandfather were cricketers, but an underground passage with a candle behind the wicket near their small garden in Cambray Place, provided the Jessop Children (he was one of twelve) with space to pitch stumps and play:

Gilbert recalled in 1922

My earliest recollection of the great game is a confused medley of broken-glass and the offering up of victims to the sacrifice

Gustav (of German descent) was born two miles away in Pittville and hated playing the violin but loved the piano and other children in the neighbourhood were impressed by the way in which he played the ‘Turkish March’ from the ‘Ruins of Athens.’

 

His father who was an organist and performer, was determined that Gustav should become a good pianist and encouraged his son to practice and despite suffering with weak vision and neuritis in his hand he learned to play the piano to a high standard.

At CGS he conceived an idea for a story of a brave Roman officer named ‘Horatius’ as a ‘Cantata’ (a composition meant for voices) and a year later in 1888,  Gustav entered a competition in ‘Boy’s Own Paper’ for a musical setting with piano accompaniment of a ‘stipulated poem’. His entry came sixth, but he was inspired to try again and subsequently went on to win first prize for three years running in the same competition.

Gilbert under the watchful eye of the cricket loving Headmaster John Style at CGS, gained his 2^nd XI ‘colours’ aged 12 in 1886 and in the following year found himself in the school 1^st team, primarily due to his prowess as a fielder; no mean feat for a thirteen year old who was showing great promise as a natural born games player (the school would later name a  house after him in 1922 which survived until 1971 when the house names were changed).

Alongside cricket for the school team, Gilbert also turned out for Beaufort, Churchdown, Hatherley and The Trinity Church team and was never happier than when he was playing cricket, which was often three or four times per week.

‘To us’ reflected Gilbert in 1922,‘Cricket had no season. Any old time and any old place was good enough.’

In 1887, it became evident that he was becoming a very useful bowler and he began to take wickets in Grammar School matches, notably an eight wicket haul against St George’s and six wickets against Douglas College, but as he reflected in his autobiography, ‘A Cricketer’s Log’, published in 1922:

‘My school career was of no great length, for the death of my father shortly after my fifteenth birthday made it urgent that I should at once commence ‘’to pull my own weight’’. Almost overnight I blossomed from schoolboy to schoolmaster’.

 

Gilbert’s father, Dr Henry Jessop who was a Governor at CGS, sadly died in 1890 at the age of 53.

Gustav’s father, whose position in the local church enabled some early works to be performed, arranged in 1891 for the premiere of three works at ‘The Montpellier Rotunda’ in Cheltenham for small orchestras and a year later Gustav wrote the music for an operetta in the style of ‘Gilbert and Sullivan’, which was performed at ‘Cheltenham’s Corn Exchange’;  but even as a young man, he was suffering from neuritis (a nerve disorder) in his right arm and his father knew that he would  never become a concert pianist.

He was however, set for a career in music and applied for a scholarship to The Royal College of Music (RCM), but failed, as he did when applying to various other music colleges in London, so he decided to stay in Cheltenham and seek other opportunities to develop himself as a musician.

Firstly, he took on the role of organist and choirmaster in Wick –Rissington and then conductor of the ‘Bourton on the Water Choral Society’ in 1893, where he experienced at first hand, how to deal with a choir and an orchestra at the same time; it was here that he developed his love of the Cotswolds which was to be the inspiration for his first symphony.

 

After a brief spell as an unpaid housemaster at Alvechurch Grammar School in Worcestershire, Gilbert arrived at Burford Grammar School in Oxfordshire, in the summer of 1893 as a trainee teacher and games master and he records that, ‘Migration to Burford marked a turning point in my career.’

With the exception of matches against other schools, masters (including the Headmaster Mr Piggott) were allowed to play alongside the boys, so the school was able to put up a strong side for matches against clubs like Stow on the Wold, Northleach and Lincoln College Oxford.

He also joined the very successful Witney Town club and helped them to win the prestigious  ‘Oxford County Club’ competition during that summer.

The summer of 1893 was also a turning point for Gustav as his father decided to borrow the money to send him to the RCM and when he arrived in London, he was tutored by Charles Villiers Stanford, one of the founding professors of the college, who taught composition; Gustav was always grateful to him for teaching him to’ become his own critic’.

In 1894 the money borrowed by his father ran out, so Gustav faced the possibility of not being able to stay on at the college, however six weeks later, he at last managed to gain the ‘open scholarship’ for composition which enabled him to continue his studies, much to his relief.

For Gilbert, 1894 was a momentous year in his career as he would make his debut for Gloucestershire against Lancashire at Old Trafford under the guidance of County Captain the great Dr. W.G.Grace; he travelled north and met up with his team-mates on the morning of the match and was met by the ‘great man’ who put the young man at ease with, ‘ a kindly nod and a shake from that great paw’.

The Witney Gazette praised his performance (he had scored 29 and 19 respectively and had bowled 29 overs, taking 1 for 72) by saying that

Jessop made a creditable appearance for the County, having to go in both innings at a critical point and coming very well out of his ideal

It was around this time that Gilbert acquired the nickname ‘The Croucher’, so called for his ‘idiosyncratic stance at the wicket’, which would stay with him throughout his career, much to his annoyance.

Lancashire won the match by an innings and 98 runs, but Gilbert was ‘booked’ for three matches and then for the rest of the season, an association that would last until the outbreak of WW1.

In 1895 Gustav met composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (born near Cirencester in 1872) at the RCM and began a friendship and musical collaboration which continued for over forty years and helped transform the landscape of classical music in Britain ; Vaughan-Williams would most famously compose ‘The Lark Ascending’ in 1914 and would  say of Gustav:

He was a great composer, a great teacher and a great friend

Two years later Gustav accepted an invitation to conduct ‘The Socialist Choir’ in Hammersmith. Influenced by his admiration of William Morris (the designer, poet, artist and socialist), it was here that he met his future wife Isobel Harrison, a soprano in the choir; he would write her a love song every week and they would have one daughter, Imogen born in 1907, who would follow in her father’s footsteps and study at the RCM, later working with Benjamin Britten, composing,  conducting and writing.

Gilbert returned home in August 1895 and achieved his highest score up to that point (63) at The Cheltenham Cricket Festival (which celebrated its 150^th anniversary in 2022) in the seven wicket victory over Yorkshire, which coincided with his appearance on the front cover of ‘Cricket- A Weekly Record of the Game’; he would play in 41 matches at Cheltenham College scoring over 1,500 runs with a highest score of 124 against Surrey in 1910.

He joined ‘Christ’s College Cambridge’( to study for the priesthood, presumably on a scholarship) in the summer of 1896 and made an immediate impression, scoring over 400 runs from eight innings and taking 29 wickets; his 212 not out against Clare College stands out as an example of his growing prowess as a ‘high scoring’ batsman, which would later become his trademark.

Gilbert continued to play for the University for the next three years (appearing  in four Varsity matches) and captained the team in his final year alongside being named one of ‘Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year’ in 1898, but he would leave without a degree:

Despite the frequent interruptions by such matters as lectures, recalled Gilbert, I enjoyed my cricketing days at Cambridge

He toured America in 1897 but struggled on the journeys with sea-sickness which affected his health on his return, resulting in him not being able to go back to Cambridge for several months, which directly affected his studies.

Gustav left the RCM in 1897 to take up the position of ‘first trombone player’ with ‘The Carla Rosa Opera Company’ based in the UK which was once described as ‘Arguably the most influential opera company ever in Britain’ and played under the baton of the composer Richard Strauss, but only stayed for a year.

In 1902 his ‘Cotswolds Symphony’, which was his first major orchestral work, was performed in Bournemouth, written in memory of William Morris and he also completed his ‘Ave Maria’, which was his first published piece.

In June 1899 Gilbert was finally selected for England against the Australians at Lord’s and despite defeat, he scored 51 and took 3 for 10 which would lead to a further 17 appearances over the next thirteen years, ending his England career against South Africa in 1912.

During the twenty years Gilbert played for and captained Gloucestershire, it was often felt that he ‘carried the team’ with his all-round performances and produced some remarkable statistics, notably a century in each innings on four occasions and five double centuries, his score of 286 in 175 minutes in 1903 being his highest ; he would also score a century within 60 minutes on fifteen occasions.

His finest hour however, would come in the fifth test against Australia at The Oval in August 1902 in a game that would become known as ‘Jessop’s Match’, where Gilbert, recalled to the team having been dropped, helped secure victory by scoring a century off 76 balls in 77 minutes which remains to this day the fastest century by an Englishman in a test match.

He enjoyed an overwhelming reception as he walked back to the pavilion, the Australians joining most heartily in the applause, which led the great C.B Fry to suggest that,

If ever an innings ought to have been filmed that was the one and it was Jessop’s magic which transformed that August day.

‘Such batting’, declared Gerald Brodribb in ‘The Croucher’, published in 1974,

made him the biggest draw in cricket and spectators were frenzied with excitement at his hitting.

Gilbert married his wife Millicent Osborne in October 1902, after meeting her on board ship during a visit to Australia and they had one son, Gilbert Laird Osborne Jessop born in 1906, who would later also study at Christ College Cambridge and play for the MCC and Hampshire( he never allowed his father’s reputation to become a burden), before focusing on a career in the Church of England at home and abroad, which included a ‘post-retiral’ ministry as Master of St John’s Hospital Bath between 1975 and 1984.

Sadly however, Gilbert would see his career end in 1916 ( he had scored over 26,000 runs and taken 873 wickets in first-class cricket) when he was invalided out of the army, where he was a ‘Recruitment Officer’ in The Manchester Regiment, never to play again after suffering damage to his heart while receiving ‘heat treatment’, eventually leading to a heart attack two years later.

In 1905, Gustav was appointed Head of Music at St Paul’s Girls School in Hammersmith and conducted his first performance of ‘The Mystic Trumpeter; he would teach there for 30 years and also became Director of Music at Morley College (a specialist further education establishment) in London from 1907 to 1924.

In 1906 as part of ‘The English Hymnal’, commissioned by his friend Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Gustav set the 1872 poem by Christina Rossetti  ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’, to music and called it ‘Cranham’ after the Cotswold village of the same name and in 2008 it was voted’ The Best Christmas Carol of All Time,’ by a panel of leading musical directors in Britain and the US; it has featured in an episode of Dr Who and in season four of Peaky Blinders and many consider it to be, ‘The World’s Greatest Carol.’

He had a growing interest in Astrology, forming the basis of his most famous work, ‘The Planets’, which he began in 1914, completing the suite three years later, with its first performance at The Queen’s Hall in London in 1918; it has become one of the most performed works ever, inspiring many modern composers such as Howard Shore and John Williams( as the composer of the music for ‘Star Wars’, Williams was told by the Director George Lucas, to make the score more ‘equal to Mars in the Planets Suite’), although Gustav reputedly, hated the planets and its success left him in ‘a state of bewilderment’.

Although unfit for military service, Gustav joined the YMCA Education Department in 1918, helping to organise music activities in training camps and hospitals, however before he was allowed to do this, he had to change his name by deed poll, dropping the ‘von’ from his name, so it sounded less German.

In 1921 he set a poem called ‘I vow to Thee, My Country’ by Sir Cecil Spring Rice to music; the hymn would later be used at the funerals of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher and has been the theme for the Rugby World Cup (The World in Union) since 1991; it has also been considered among potential future anthems for the United Kingdom.

In 1923 however, while conducting at Reading University, Gustav fell off the stage banging his head, which would later lead to violent headaches, resulting in him giving up full time teaching at St Paul’s and forcing him to spend more time in Thaxted in Essex, to rehabilitate.

Gilbert was able to resume some work in 1924 and became Secretary of Edgware Golf Club and started to report on cricket matches at Lord’s for some of the national newspapers alongside producing a series of books for children which were very popular, but sadly his health deteriorated and in 1936 the Jessops moved in with their son in Dorset, where Gilbert would live until his death aged 80 in 1955; he is buried in St George’s Church Dorchester.

In 1927 the citizens of Cheltenham organised a ‘Holst Festival’ and in conducting ‘The Planets’ in the Town Hall, Gustav described it as,

The most overwhelming event of my life.

In 1930, he was invited to Harvard University to lecture on composition, but was hospitalized with ‘haemorrhagic gastritis’ caused by a duodenal ulcer and at the end of 1933, Gustav entered a nursing home where he sadly passed away a year later suffering a heart attack after surgery, he was 59; his ashes were interred at Chichester Cathedral in 1934.

Gilbert was without doubt the Ben Stokes of his day and his legacy lives on due to his record (he is still 15^th on the list of ‘all-time’ fastest test hundreds and remains the fastest Englishman)  and in the term, ‘Jessopian’- an adjective used to describe ‘ an aggressive style of batting.’

He was also one of those rare people who excelled in most sports (cricket, hockey, rugby , football, golf  and billiards), but settled on cricket as the focus and as a result inspired future generations with his swashbuckling style of batting, prompting the former Australian cricketer and broadcaster Richie Benaud, to state that,

He was undoubtedly the best one- day player to have ever lived and never played that form of cricket.

 

Gustav is considered to have had a major influence on the path of British music and is said to have inspired the next generation of composers, such as Michael Tippett and Benjamin Britten( both greatly admired him as a composer) and in many ways his legacy in insisting that ‘music is a part of life that cannot be done without’, is something we should always celebrate.

There are three commemorative plaques dedicated to Gilbert Jessop: at his birthplace in Cheltenham which was renamed ‘Jessop House’ in 1974, at Mill Hill in London and at Burford School in Oxfordshire and there is currently a display of ‘Jessop memorabilia’ at the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club (GCCC) in Bristol, set up by Roger Gibbons of ‘The GCCC Heritage Trust’, to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of his birth; The Lord’s MCC Museum also hold several items of kit belonging to Gilbert and a portrait print of him .

 

For Gustav Holst, plaques have been erected at St Paul’s Girls School, in Thaxted, Barnes and at his birthplace in Cheltenham, which is now ‘The Holst Victorian House’ and in 2008 ‘The Cheltenham Civic Society’ erected a statue and memorial fountain on an octagonal plinth depicting the planets, in the town’s Imperial Gardens.

 

Both men are recognised by their old school (which became Pate’s Grammar School in 1986) on a board depicting ‘Notable Former Pupils’ in the ‘Archive Corridor’ at the school in Cheltenham.

It is not known if Gilbert and Gustav were friends, but there is every likelihood that they were aware of each other as they progressed through the school and it is also not known whether they ever came into contact as adults, but perhaps they met at a The ‘Everyman Theatre’ that was established in the town in 1891 or at the ‘Horse Racing Festival’ at Prestbury which became a national attraction in 1902?

Either way, they would have surely taken note of each other’s achievements through newspaper reports and perhaps reflected on how their lives operated along parallel lines, ‘extending in the same direction towards greatness, but never converging or diverging.’

 

My thanks to Pat Jessop, Roger Gibbons, Paul Uttley, Laura Kinnear, Andy Rand, Quentin Tailford and The archivists at Pate’s Grammar School, for their help with this article.

Article copyright of Bill Williams