The Greater Game: Sporting Icons Who Fell In The Great War

Harris, Clive and Whippy, Julian (Foreword By Richard Holmes)

ISBN 10: 1844157628 / ISBN 13: 9781844157624

Published by Pen & Sword, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, 2008

About this Item

Fine/VG+. First edition, first printing in d/w not price clipped. PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, CLIVE HARRIS, on half-title page. Inscription reads, 'To ------/Best wishes from the author/Clive/02-xii-08'. Illustrated with photographs. Amongst the many thousands of lives tragically cut short in the First World War were hundreds of young men who had athletic and sporting promise. This book studies fourteen professional sportsment who gave their lives in that most vicious of conflicts. With Bibliography and Index. D/w has minor and light chipping to fore-edge; d/w has some light sunning; else a fine copy, in a very good plus d/w, of a SCARCE first edition, first printing SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. D/w now protected in a detachable, non-adhesive, clear sheaf.

Seller Inventory # 17538

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Greater Game: Sporting Icons Who Fell In The Great War
• Publisher: Pen & Sword, Barnsley, South Yorkshire
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844157628
• ISBN 13: 9781844157624
• Binding: Hardback
• Edition: First edition, First Printing.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good Plus
• Signed: Presentation Copy Inscribed And Signed
• Seller catalogs:
  • Sports and Pastimes
  • History
  • Military

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Clive Harris is a full time battlefield guide and lover of London. His previous books include Walking the London Blitz and The Greater Game – Sporting Icons Who Fell in the Great War.

He lives in Hertfordshire and is a member of the Guild Battlefield Guides.

Julian Whippy served for 25 years in the British Police, primarily with Firearms teams and as a covert surveillance officer in London. Julian’s passion for military history began when he joined the Royal Anglian Regiment as a reservist and has culminated with him owning his own battlefield tour company and working for many years across the world as an accredited battlefield guide. A member of the British Commission for Military History, he wrote The Greater Game, Sportsmen Killed in the Great War. A season ticket holder at West Ham United, he is married and has a Vizsla called Gurkha.