19617 RGS ONA Issue 106.qxp_Layout 1 03/10/2019 17:54 Page 4
A HISTORY OF THE RGS IN ITS SPORT BY DAVID GOLDWATER (51-62) Sport in its many guises is a strong feature of most modern schools, RGS providing a particularly brilliant example. But it was not always so. David Goldwater investigates the origins of sport at RGS.
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ome traditional schools had developed adapted versions of existing sports, notably Eton, Winchester and Rugby, or invented their own, as at Rugby School, which acquired an eponymous sport when William Webb Ellis (allegedly) picked up the ball and ran with it in 1823. Generally, however, traditional sport was under attack from all sides; factory owners wanted a regular working week; property owners feared the damage caused by large crowds and churches criticised idleness, drunkenness and slack morality.
Above: 1825 map showing the future RGS site. Opposite (clockwise): JR McManus in the pole vault; WW Kreshmarr (Achilies and German javelin champion) RGS, 1965; RGS Groundsman Bob Telford; Rye Hill School; RGS Sports Day in the 50s; RGS water polo team, 1947
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By Victorian times, however, sport became linked to a moral code defined by the middle classes and it was accepted that sport could develop character and morality. By the turn of the 20th Century, organised sporting involvement expanded rapidly across all classes. However, the different classes played their sport separately and public school athleticism still dominated sport. Between the wars (1918-1939), football (in all its
