Saturday Morning Beard Fact

That moustaches were gaining in popularity was apparent not only in the pulpits but also on sports pitches. In the 1890s, the popular cricketer Prince Ranji (later Maharaja Jam Sahib of Navangar) was photographed regularly and could be seen sporting a highly fashionable moustache but no other facial hair. This was a sign of the new type of dandy, for whom the cricketing prince was a hero. A sporting contemporary of of Prince Ranji was the Welsh rugby star Arthur Gould, who also took pride in his bristling moustache on an otherwise clean-shaven face. Both men are in stark contrast to one of the most famous of all Victorian sporting heroes, W.G. Grace.

He was the first English cricket player to hit a Test century, and the first to reach the coveted ‘double’ – 1’000 runs and 100 wickets in a single session. In his 1890 portrait, attributed to Archibald John Stuart Wortley, little of Grace’s face is visible between his cricketing cap and his facial hair.

Moustaches, Whiskers & Beards by Lucinda Hawksley, National Portrait Gallery