The Greater Game

This fascinating book examines the deadly impact of The Great War on a number of leading professional sportsmen of the age. Their untimely deaths pressed home how even the fittest and most gifted were vulnerable and their loss was felt by far more than their families and friends.

Among those featured in this well illustrated book are: Donald Bell - the only professional football player to win the Victoria Cross: Anthony Wilder - the glamorous Wimbledon champion who fell in May 1915; Francois Faber - the Tour de France star: Percy Poulton Palmer - England Rugby Captain; and numerous others. Also covered are those sports-orientated units such as 16 Battalion Royal Scots (formed around Heart of Midlothian FC) and 11 King’s Royal Rifle Corps (professional golfers). We learn of their formation, training and war service. Finally the authors study the effect of the conflict on the world of sport - canceling of fixture, use of facilities etc.