Page 97 - Mind, Body & Spirit Number 104 2020/21

THE RAPTC OLYMPIANS – 100 YEARS
RAPTC Instructors are the athletes of the British Army; in peak physical
condition and excelling in team and individual sports. It is little wonder that throughout the history of the Corps many of these have transcended the levels of Army and Service competition and competed at the highest international level. The pinnacle of this is the Olympic Games.
Responsibility for recreational sport was not part of the mandated duties of the early Army Gymnastic Staff (AGS). However, there was a strong sporting ethos that underlined its work through the influence of the first Director of Gymnasia, Major Frederick Hamersley, who also served as the first Chairman of the Amateur Athletic Club and as part of the National Olympian Association. Under his aegis the AGS organised numerous sporting events in Aldershot, including in 1863 the first Assault-at Arms display of gymnastics and swordsmanship.
Instructors embedded with individual units often assumed responsibility for organising and refereeing sports such as cricket, rugby and football. The AGS naturally attracted men with an interest in fitness and sport, with many excelling at military and civilian level. This included men such as Colonel Edgeworth- Johnstone, twice amateur Heavyweight Boxing Champion of England, who held the post of Assistant Inspector of Gymnasia in the 1890’s. This reflected a wider civilian interest in competitive sport which grew throughout the second half of the c.19th, culminating in the establishment of the modern Olympic Games in 1896.
Sport took on an even greater
importance during the First World
War, with vocal supporters such
as Brigadier Reginald Kentish
CMG DSO emphasising its value
in maintaining both the fitness
and morale of troops on active service. The importance of martial sports as a means of enhancing Army training was also recognised. In September 1916, Field Marshal Haig approved the expansion of competitive recreational sport for troops serving in France and its supervision by the AGS. This extra responsibility saw both an expansion in the levels of sport taught by Instructors and the increased need for expertise in its practise.
The result was the recruitment into the AGS of notable sportsmen and unarmed combat specialists, including WO2 (CSMI) Aubrey
Coleman and Sgt (SI) George de Relwyskow. Both these men had competed in the Freestyle Wrestling discipline in the 1908 London Games, with De Relwyskow winning a gold and silver medal. These specialists developed a style of close quarters combat ideally suited for trench warfare, which they demonstrated and taught to troops. Responsibility for recreational sport passed to the Army Sport Control Board in November 1918 but the sporting ethos remained in the AGS, with instructors retaining their role in running sports at unit level, as well as competing individually.
In the Post-War years the martial sports of Fencing and Modern Pentathlon were heavily favoured in the renamed Army Physical Training Staff (APTS). This was largely owing to the inclination of senior figures within the Staff, many of whom were themselves champion fencers. Expertise in swordsmanship had been one of the prerequisites skills of the AGS instructor since the 1860s and had iascended to a higher level after 1893, when Inspector of Physical Training Sir G.M Fox invited the famous Italian swordsman Ferdinando Masiello to run a course in fencing for the Aldershot staff.
The result of this was Staff domination of competitive Fencing between the three Services. Between 1905 and 1939 the title of overall Champion-at Arms (Dismounted) at the Royal Tournament was won on 22 out of 33 occasions by an AGS/APTS Officer or Instructor, and twice further by a future SOPT. On the resumption of the Olympics in 1920 three APTS Officers: Brigadier Thomas Wand-Tetley CBE, Colonel Ronald Campbell CBE DSO and Captain Harry Daniels VC MC were selected to represent Great Britain in Fencing and Modern Pentathlon at the Antwerp Games.
Other Ranks however, were barred from competing. This reflected a burning issue prevalent in many sports at the time, the struggle of the worthy sporting “amateur” (usually a gentleman/officer) to maintain their position in the sporting hierarchy in the face of competition from the paid “professional” (a working man/ ranker). Participation in the Olympics was strictly the preserve of the amateur, an issue that would linger until late in the c.20th. Considered to be physical training professionals, APTS Instructors were barred from competing in the Games at this period, a decision that excluded many of its greatest fencers.
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WO2 (CSMI) Aubrey Colemans competitors’ card from the 1908 London Games
Diploma marking Brigadier L.F.E Wieler’s involvement in organising the 1948 Games