Men Who Played The Game - Mike Rees

The Great War marked a profound change in attitudes to war and the conduct of it. Six million men from the British Isles served in it, 720,000 (12%) were killed.Men Who Played the Gameexplores the development and importance of sport in Britain and the Empire leading up to the outbreak of the First World War, and the part played by sportsmen in the conflict. The book includes revelatory chapters on how sport - the fans, the governing bodies and the sportsmen themselves - responded to the coming of war. The rest of the book discovers the stories of individuals and groups of sportsmen, giving accounts of their pre-war sporting success, and their subsequent military service.