Compared to the giants before and after in the Gloucestershire side, WG and Wally Hammond, Gilbert Jessop comes nowhere near in terms of output. But in all branches of entertainment there have been performers who by personality and method catch the public imagination to a greater extent than others of more technical ability. Of such was Gilbert Jessop. He was 28 when he scored his Oval hundred. He was the 11th child of a doctor in Cheltenham who had him christened Gilbert after the son of another doctor – William Gilbert Grace. He went to work as a schoolteacher aged 16 after the death of his father. He went to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1896, two years after he first played for Gloucestershire. He succeeded WG as county captain in 1900 and played, as an amateur, until 1914 after retiring as captain in 1912.

Jessop was known as "The Croucher" because of his stance, and because he bent downwards further just as the bowler reached the crease. He had his left hand far round the handle, his hands apart. But for any hard shot he just closed them up. When driving, to obtain power, the right hand came up, but when hooking and cutting, to obtain more control, the left hand went down the handle, as it did with Jack Hobbs and Don Bradman.

He was a small man of 5ft 7in, weighing 11 stone but extremely powerful and quick moving, double jointed and possessed of a marvellous eye. Most batsmen used bats weighing from 2lb 2oz to 2lb 6oz. His were at least 2lb 10oz and his greatest favourite – used around 1900 – was 3lb 4oz. He used it until it fell to pieces after about 4,000 runs.

Hobbs described Jessop as "undoubtedly the most consistently fast scorer I have ever seen". His great 104 at The Oval in 1902 took 77 minutes. A 233 for the Rest of England against Yorkshire at Lord's in 1901 took only 150 minutes. CB Fry was 72 when Jessop went in. He was 97 when Fry got his hundred – his sixth in a row, still a record. His highest score of 286, for Gloucestershire against Sussex, took 175 minutes with the 200 coming up in 120 minutes. That was why he drew larger crowds than any of his contemporaries. When he was playing in London, if the ticker tape said he was not out at lunch time or tea, hansom cabs would bring in many spectators from the City who went away when he got out. But CB Fry insisted he was not a slogger: "He watched the ball as carefully as WG but he did sweep the ball with a discriminating abandon I have never seen equalled."

When I was young and he was trying to teach me to play, he often said: "Never make up your mind before the ball is bowled" for, he said, this had often cost him his wicket. When he ignored his own advice he would move his feet to suit the line and length and, if he was in form, it was impossible to set a field to contain him since he did not play the expected strokes. Yet, if someone is quick enough, it seems to be a good formula for devastating the bowling. His theory was that the ball could be hit to any place the batsman wished.

From hitting many shots high in the air at the start of his first-class career, he developed into hitting some along the carpet, and the rest as skimmers above the heads of the infielders. By 1899 he was capable of placing his shots with great accuracy. He was sorry never to have hit the ball over the Pavilion at Lord's although in 1908 he did hit the iron scroll work on one of the towers, but the ball fell back. I was told that the biggest hit seen in Sydney was made by him, and in Hastings they say that a chapel near the ground put wire screens over its windows when he was playing.

He played 18 times for England and scored 53 first-class centuries, the same number as David Gower. He scored a hundred in each innings four times. He went on three tours abroad but was badly affected by sea sickness and was not a great success. His most lasting achievement was on the return journey from Australia in 1902. He was throwing catches with a rubber tobacco pouch and managed to hit a passing young Australian lady. She gave him a smile and, six months later, her hand.

He joined up in 1914 but the damp conditions in the billets and trenches brought on severe rheumatism, in part because of an injury to his back sustained in the first Test in 1909. He was sent to Bath and given heat treatment at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. He was put in a contraption like a coffin and the lid closed. Somehow the catch got caught so that he could not push it up or attract attention. When the attendant came back after 25 minutes he was unconscious and his heart was badly strained. He was not well enough to take up work until 1924.

His health finally broke down in 1936 and he came to live with me in my vicarage in Dorchester which had a garden in which he could walk. From 1940 until his death in May 1955 he never went more than 100 yards beyond the gate. He is buried in the graveyard beside St George's church.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd