ABSTRACT
A Board of Education had replaced the former Education Committee of the Privy Council in 1899, but the government had jibbed at granting it 'control' over education. Pressure for a 'single authority' to replace the many boards, committees and ad hoc authorities developed from many 'expert' quarters, though their defenders saw them as bastions of educational democracy. Other contemporaries placed sport more demurely in the context of 'physical education' or worried about its relationship to religion. In the pre-war decade, physical fitness had been stressed in part prompted by shortcomings apparent among volunteers for the South African War but the needs of the spectator were not neglected. In 1907, the English Rugby Football Union bought a site of 10 acres at Twickenham a step which some considered too ambitious. In 1908, London was host to the fourth Olympic Games of the modern era. The revived Olympic movement was supposed to contribute to international harmony and her gesture no doubt helped.
