Ross Gerald Gregory (27 February 1916Frith, pp. 3–4. Gregory believed his birthdate was 28 February but the birth was registered as 27 February. The birth was also registered as "Gerald Ross" rather than "Ross Gerald". His birthplace is often listed as the small country town of

Murchison, Victoria Murchison is a small riverside rural village located on the Goulburn River in Victoria, Australia. Murchison is located 167 kilometres from Melbourne and is just to the west of the Goulburn Valley Highway between Shepparton and Nagambie. The s ...

—the normal family residence—but he was actually born in the eastern Melbourne suburb of

Malvern, Victoria Malvern () is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Stonnington local government area. Malvern recorded a population of 9,929 at the 2021 census. ...

. – 10 June 1942) was an

Australian Test cricketer This is a list of Australia Test cricketers. A Test match is an international two-innings per side cricket match between two of the leading cricketing nations. The list is arranged in the order in which each player won his Test cap by playing f ...

. Gregory, a diminutive gifted right-hand batsman, was a precocious batting talent, making his debut for

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

while still at school and his Test cricket debut before the age of 21 in the 1936–37 season, after scoring 128 for his state against

Gubby Allen Sir George Oswald Browning "Gubby" Allen CBE (31 July 190229 November 1989) was a cricketer who captained England in eleven Test matches. In first-class matches, he played for Middlesex and Cambridge University. A fast bowler and hard-hitt ...

's MCC tourists. Although this was his only first-class century, he scored 17 fifties in his 33 games and took 50 wickets with his

leg break Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

s and

googlies In the game of cricket, a googly refers to a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is different from the normal delivery for a leg-spin bowler in that it is turning the other way. The googly is ''not'' a variation of the ...

. He compiled 23, 50 and 80 in his three Test innings, making a major contribution as Australia came back from 2-0 down to win the Ashes 3–2. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Gregory enlisted in the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

and attained the rank of

Pilot Officer Pilot officer (Plt Off officially in the RAF; in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly P/O in all services, and still often used in the RAF) is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countrie ...

.Frith, p. 299. He was killed in action near the town of

Gaffargaon Gafargaon ( bn, গফরগাঁও) is an upazila of Mymensingh District in the Division of Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Geography Gafargaon is located at . It has 73,130 households and total area 401.16 km2. Trishal on the north, Nandail in ...

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = Eas ...

(now

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

) in 1942 (aged 26) when his bomber crashed on operations to bomb Japanese in Burma.Frith, p. 297. Many cricket texts place Gaffagaon in

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

, that is not correct. Born in Malvern, a suburb of Melbourne, he was educated at

Wesley College, Melbourne Wesley College is an independent, co-educational, open-entry private school in Melbourne, Australia. Established in 1866, the college is the only school in Victoria to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) from early childhood to Year 12. Th ...

Notes

References

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External links

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Roll of honour
– Australian War Memorial {{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Ross 1916 births 1942 deaths Victoria cricketers Australia Test cricketers Australian military personnel killed in World War II Australian World War II pilots Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II Cricketers from Melbourne People educated at Wesley College (Victoria) Australian cricketers D. G. Bradman's XI cricketers Royal Australian Air Force officers People from Malvern, Victoria Military personnel from Melbourne