ABSTRACT
Throughout the period of Victoria’s small wars, colonial campaigning was widely viewed as a natural extension of the gentlemanly sporting culture of the British officer. Sport was also an important cultural signifier for the rank and file. The martial prowess of the ordinary soldier was frequently couched in sporting terms. As the combatant assumed the form of the athlete so the battlefield was recast as a playing-field. This process of transformation was aided by the packaging of warfare in the language and imagery of sport. This chapter will, therefore, explore the connection between the sportsman and the Victorian soldier, showing how the language and codes of sport were used in press reports, memoirs, novels and artworks to represent and reimagine military operations in the era of small colonial wars.
