Book chapter 174 views
‘Throw aside the jersey for the khaki’: Recruitment and Rugby in south Wales
Gethin Matthews 
Rugby and World War One
Swansea University Author:
Gethin Matthews
Abstract
As is well known, there was an enormous recruitment drive in Britain in the first months of the First World War, with young men from all over the kingdom being urged to volunteer. Notions of masculinity were to the fore in much of the public discourse, with men being challenged in myriad ways to pro...
| Published in: | Rugby and World War One |
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| Published: |
Palgrave Macmillan
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69968 |
| Abstract: |
As is well known, there was an enormous recruitment drive in Britain in the first months of the First World War, with young men from all over the kingdom being urged to volunteer. Notions of masculinity were to the fore in much of the public discourse, with men being challenged in myriad ways to prove themselves worthy by ‘joining the colours’. Although much of the rhetoric in the recruitment posters emphasised notions of ‘king and country’, the movement to encourage suitable candidates to join up was driven locally. Across communities in Wales (as elsewhere), sportsmen were specifically targeted by local media and the leaders of society. In the south of Wales, a great deal of attention was focussed upon rugby, the dominant sport for young men. Rivalry – between cities, between sporting codes and between clubs – was in general one of the principal drivers of recruitment. The administrators of rugby sought to ensure that their sport was understood to be entirely supportive of the war effort, and of all the sports in south Wales, rugby’s commitment to the campaign was seen to be the strongest and most valuable.This chapter shows how newspaper reports and public demonstrations were used to try to maximise the number of Welsh rugby players who volunteered in 1914-15. There is a particular focus upon the month of September 1914, when the forces pushing young men to enlist were at their most intense. The ways in which a rugby ‘identity’ was harnessed by commentators and editors are explored and the visual representation of volunteer rugby players, in media such as cartoons and photographs, is studied. Many of the ideas promulgated in the initial months of the war remained potent as the situation developed, and rugby players’ particular status was reflected in the ways their achievements or deaths in battle were reported. |
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| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |