ABSTRACT
The Great War may be conveniently taken as a divide ~ political, social, economic and educational;' new political principles, creeping embourgeoisement, declining national prosperity and a reformulation of educational ideals increasingly characterised the next fifty years. The eventual effect on the public schools was pronounced, but typically there was no charge to a liberal vanguard, nor an immediate recantation of firmly-held beliefs. The pressures for change were inexorable in nature but gradual in effect. And they were differently experienced. With memoirs unwritten and school archives as yet unfilled, it is impossible to determine at this close proximity in time either their order of importance or their relative influence with any certainty. Thus a detailed survey ofthe demise of athleticism is not the purpose of this study. Yet in the interests of completeness it might be useful - briefly and tentatively - to attempt to locate the major forces, which destroyed a powerful belief system and widespread practice.
