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Sport and Physical Education
Extent
14 m
Scope and content
Captain Francis H. Grenfell was appointed the first assistant superintendent of the Navy's Gymnastic Department in the early 1900s and was instrumental in getting the much admired Swedish system adopted by naval gymnastic schools. After leaving the Navy, he taught in schools (including Eton College) until 1909 when he became an H.M.I. (His Majesty’s Inspector) for Physical Training for the Board of Education's new medical department. Grenfell was keen to get physical education into the school curriculum, taught by fully trained teachers. He returned to the Navy during the First World War, but was released from service in 1919 so that he could continue his work at the Board of Education.
The Collection consists of books and a few bound volumes of periodicals on physical education published in the late-19th and early-20th centuries; a lot of the material is in English, but a substantial proportion is in the various Scandinavian languages, French and German.
History
During the years spent in the Navy, Grenfell amassed an extensive collection of books on physical education which he donated to the Board of Education in 1934. Relevant material was added to the collection until 1947 through donation and purchase. A catalogue was compiled in 1935, and updated in 1985. The Board's successor, the Department for Education, deposited the Collection with the Institute in 1992.
Access
This collection is catalogued and is searchable on Explore. Items from the collection can only be perused in the IOE Reading Room.
