Fields of battle: UK government and public attitudes to sport in the second world war

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Second World War, according to a British Government report, applied a ‘knockout blow’ to sport. This, the same Home Intelligence correspondent wrote, was due to lack of preparation by sports bodies for the conflict – an extraordinary example of buck passing in January 1940 considering the military fiascos that were looming. This paper will look at Government and public attitudes to sport between 1939 and 1945 by examining Cabinet papers and the Mass Observation and Home Intelligence files at the University of Sussex. These trace the journey from where sport was halted in the earliest days of the war – sometimes at the behest of governing bodies, on other occasions due to lack of resources such as blackout material – to it becoming an ‘essential ingredient in bolstering domestic morale’.