The son of Samuel Boyd Gravenall, and Ida Tily Gravenall, née Browne, Samuel Boyd Gravenall was born on 18 July 1885. He married Jane "Jennie" Godolphin Oats, at Prahran, Victoria on 6 July 1910. They had three children: Betty, and Donald William Gravenall, who became a respected swimming coach, and Barbara Ida.
From Wesley College, Melbourne, 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 inaugural Melbourne Carnival. After 41 games for North Fremantle he returned to Melbourne, where he was employed as a sports master at Wesley 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 at Rugby School in England, controversially refused to allow Gravenall to continue to play VFL football in 1911. As a consequence, Gravenell retired as a VFL footballer at the end of the 1910 season; however, he did continue to play football, playing with Collegians Football Club, the Wesley College Old Boy's team, in the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association.
Coaching
He coached Essendonfor 12 games in the 1922 VFL season, and for 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 the August 1933 Australian National Football Carnival, held in Sydney; 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".
After football
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. In 1941, he was working in London as an Air Raid Warden.
