The Studd brothers, Sir John Edward Kynaston, George (GB) and Charles (CT), were Victorian gentleman cricketers, educated at Eton and Cambridge. These three brothers represented Eton in the Eton v Harrow annual needle match and represented Cambridge at cricket and dominated the Cambridge cricket scene in the early 1880s.
Their father Edward Studd, who had 11 children in all, was born in Bombay and made his fortune in indigo manufacture. Kynaston, GB and CT were the oldest sons of their father's second wife, Dora Sophia née Thomas, and were brought up at Spratton Hall in Northamptonshire, Hallaton Hall in Leicestershire, and Tedworth House in Wiltshire. The family also had a residence in Hyde Park Gardens.
Kynaston, George and CT were still at Eton when their father became a born-again Christian and they were far from pleased by his efforts to interest them in the gospel. However, these three themselves converted when a visiting preacher went to stay with the Studd family during the summer holidays of 1878, an event that was to have a profound influence on the rest of their lives.
They excelled at cricket initially at Cheam School, then at Eton, and later at Trinity College, Cambridge, where the brothers achieved a remarkable record of each captaining the university cricket team in successive seasons from 1882 to 1884. The exceptional skills shown by CT gained him a place in the England team in 1882 which lost the match to Australia which originated the tradition of "the Ashes" between the two countries. The following winter he toured Australia with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team who recovered the trophy.