OLYMPIC GAMES – THE LOCAL CONNECTION
Thursday August 18th
2016. The Olympic Games are in full
swing with Team GB performing impressively well. Today I drove from Leominster
to Much Wenlock in neighbouring Shropshire, less than an hour away. During these games I have heard little said
about the Wenlock connection.
However in the Wenlock parish church
there is a plaque commemorating local doctor, William Penny Brookes, (1809 –
1895) a great philanthropist and ardent believer in Physical Education. He
wished to make this part of everyone’s education, especially that of working
class people. He set up a library and
reading room and in 1850 an Olympian Class which in 1860 became the Wenlock
Olympian Society.
Under the plaque is another added in
2012, the year of the London Games.
DR WILLIAM
PENNY BROOKES 1809-1895
HIS
DEDICATION AND VISION BORE FRUIT IN
THE
REBIRTH OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES, ATHENS 1896
HIS IMAGINATION, A WORLDWIDE
INSPIRATION
IN
THANKSGIVING 2012 XXX OLYMPIAD
The grave of Dr Brookes and family
members is in the churchyard. In 1994
Juan Antonio Samaranch, then President of the International Olympic Committee,
laid a wreath on this grave saying, "I
came to pay homage and tribute to Dr Brookes, who really was the founder of the
modern Olympic Games".
In histories of the modern games you
normally find the French Baron de Coubertin credited as founder but he wrote in
1890 “If the Olympic Games….is revived
today it is not to a Greek that one is indebted but to Dr W.P. Brookes.” High praise indeed!
Briefly the timeline is as follows -
1850 Brookes established the Wenlock Olympian
Class to hold annual games.
1859
Local Olympian Games were held in Athens for the first time open to Greek
speakers. Brookes heard about this and
sent £10 for a prize and thus established a Greek connection. He later formed a friendship with the Greek
Ambassador in London.
1860 The first Shropshire games were held in
Shrewsbury and subsequently in different towns in the county thus establishing
the idea of circulating the games.
1866
Brookes with two others had founded the National Olympian Association which
held a very successful three day event at Crystal Palace that year.
1889 The young French nobleman, Baron Pierre de
Coubertin, the organiser of the International Congress on Physical Education
visited England to find out about PE in
our schools and Brookes invited him to visit for the 1890 Wenlock games which
he did. The now 81 year old doctor and
the 27 year old Frenchman spent long hours discussing an international Olympic
revival to be held in Athens and Coubertin wrote enthusiastically about his
visit in the French ‘Revue Athlétique.’ In
the same year Brookes had successfully lobbied Parliament to make PE compulsory
in schools.
To find out more about this wonderful
story visit the Wenlock Museum and Information Centre in the square. There you will find literature and an
interesting display about the good doctor and the games as well as much else of
local interest. Pick up a leaflet “THE
OLYMPIAN TRAIL around Much Wenlock” which takes you to various points
associated with Brookes and the games. Incidentally the mascot for the London
Games was called Wenlock!
A few years ago I visited Olympia,
Greece, home of the original games. You can still see the tunnel from which the
athletes emerged rather like footballers today. The Games then had a religious
significance and one difference you might notice from today is that the competitors
were all naked. Greeks from towns and
settlements all over the ancient world came to compete and even those at war
with each other temporarily set aside their differences. Those games were held for over a thousand
years until banned in 393 AD because they were considered pagan.
Modern Greece became independent of the
Ottoman Empire in 1832 and was much smaller than today, only in 1947 reaching
its present size. In 1890 most Greeks did not live in Greece but in parts of
the Ottoman Empire. So while there was
a games movement in Greece the country had many political and economic problems
and the Government felt unable to organise the games.
The International Congress made Brookes an
honorary member and in 1894 planned the first modern Olympics for Athens
1896. Because of ill health Brookes was
unable to attend the Congress and sadly died four months before the first games
of modern times.
The name and place are being remembered on the other side of the world. . Professor Sanada of the Tokyo Olympics committee has written “The vision of Tokyo 2020 involves sport, education and culture and we in Japan recognise the importance of the legacy of Brookes and the Wenlock Olympian Society.”
The Plaques in the parish church Grave of Dr Brookes and family
(Photos S. Mollah)
