ABSTRACT
Somewhat casually, and certainly misleadingly, it has been argued that in the years before the First World War drill in the English elementary school was brief, basic and provided merely a little rudimentary exercise. 1 The reality was rather more complex. In English elementary education in the years before the First World War its inclusion was widely considered to be important; it served a number of purposes; it won extended time in the timetable; it generated public debate, even fierce controversy, and in the opinion of some at the time was an important, even crucial, aspect of the education of the elementary schoolboy. It is certainly time that more adequate consideration was given, not least by historians of sport, to this controversial aspect of English elementary education before the Great War. Hopefully, this chapter is a step in that direction.
