Making the Transition: Empire, Amateurism and Reggie Walker, the ‘Little Natalian’ Sprinter. Deborah Marie Pitchford Manchester Metropolitan University Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of an MA by Research September 2013 Making the Transition: Empire, Amateurism and Reggie Walker, the ‘Little Natalian’ Sprinter. Abstract: This thesis utilizes a narrative approach by presenting a biography of Reggie Walker, the South African 1908 Olympic sprint champion to illustrate the interactions between nationalism and Empire during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and to explore the ongoing tensions between amateurism and professionalism. At the start of the twentieth century, nationalism was often extended to include countries like South Africa, which consisted of four British colonies at the time of the 1908 London Games, despite recent wars (1880-81 and 1899-1902) between Britain and the two Boer republics. Walker’s colonial triumph appealed to the Britons present, especially since he defeated Britain’s main rivals, the North Americans, and he was subsequently celebrated in the British media as being from British native stock. Athletic distinction also became valued in the selection of troops in the Empire with those men from public schools, who were more likely to have taken up the British sports that became a feature of colonial life, being seen as promoting the power of British masculinity. Walker himself displayed specific forms of masculinity, both in his athletic and military career, and this was reflected in depictions of his muscular appearance. As an amateur and professional, Reggie was assisted by a number of individuals, some, like Sam Wisdom, professional advisors and others, like Herbert Keartland, Rufe Naylor and James Wallace, who came from different occupational backgrounds. The collective biographies of those who interacted with Walker help explain his own biography and illuminate some of the intersections between athletes, trainers and the sport during this period. Reggie’s transition between his athletic career as an amateur and as a professional occurred during the decolonization of the British Empire and the thesis draws attention to the suggestion that the decline of amateur sport could be seen as a metaphor for the decline of the British Empire. The author draws some tentative conclusions about the implications of this research and proposes that Walker’s athletic biography can be seen as representative, in some respects, of the way that nationalism and imperialism intersected during this period. Keywords: Reggie Walker; South Africa; Empire; Nationalism; Masculinity; Olympic Games Acknowledgements The author would like to thank her supervisor, Dr Dave Day, for all the support and guidance that he has shown throughout the duration of the project. The author would also like to thank her friends and family close to her for helping her through the tough times and without whom she would not be where she is today. Contents Table Introduction 1-5 Chapter 1: Empire, Imperialism and Nationalism 6-21 Boer War and the British Working Class 11-13 Nationalism 13-15 Sport and Masculinity 15-17 Masculinity and Patriotism in Natal 17-19 National Sport and Masculinities 19-21 Chapter 2: Olympism and Internationalism 22-33 Nationalism and the Olympics 24-25 The 1908 Olympics 25-28 The Development of South African Sport 28-30 James Tyrell Wallace 30-33 Chapter 3: Reggie Walker: The Little Natalian Sprinter 34-47 Selection for the 1908 South African Olympic Team 35-36 Walker’s Omission 36-37 Walker’s Subscription 37-38 Olympic Champion 38-41 Walker’s Return Home 42-43 Coaching Reggie 43-47 Chapter 4: Walker in Transition 48-61 John ‘Banks’ Brady 48-49 Brady, Walker and the Timing Question 50-51 Walker’s 1909 Season 51-53 Rupert ‘Rufe’ Theodore Naylor 53-56 The ‘Trek’ to the Rand 56-58 The South African Championship and European Tour, 1909 58-61 Chapter 5: Turning Professional 62-75 Herbert ‘Burt’ Keartland 63-64 The 1910 Season - Turning Professional 64-65 Walker’s First Professional Meeting 65-68 Walker Back on Form 68-70 International Sprint against Arthur Postle, 1912 70-71 Australian Tour, 1913 71-73 Love, Marriage and War, 1914-1918 73-75 Conclusion 76-80 Bibliography 81-91 Primary Sources 81-82 Contemporary Texts 1880-1917 82-83 Secondary Sources 83-90 Other Resources - Thesis, Conference Presentations and Internet 90-91 Images Figure 1. Map of South Africa, the red colour illustrating British Possession in 1880. Figure 2. The anatomy of Reggie Walker. Synonymous with the ‘athletic body’. Figure 3. Reggie Walker been carried off the track by Britons who found solace in his colonial victory over the North Americans. Abbreviations AAA English Amateur Athletic Association AAC Amateur Athletic Club AGM Annual General Meeting BOA British Olympic Association CA Cycling Association DAAA Durban Amateur Athletic Association DAC Durban Athletic Club DSO Distinguished Servant Order FIFA Federation International Football Association IOC International Olympic Committee KRRC Kings Royal Rife Corps NAAA Natal Amateur Athletic Association NGB National Governing Bodies OBE Order of the British Empire ORC Orange River Colony SAAA South African Athletic Association SAFA South African Football Association USA United States of America 6 Introduction The 1908 Olympic Games were celebrated in the British media as a defining moment in Britain’s historical role as the originator and leader of world sport. The Times and the Daily Mail, both proponents of the establishment and British imperialism, viewed the Games as a demonstration of Britain’s overall capacity to continue to develop and expand in the face of competition.1 The celebrations in Britain of the success of Reggie Walker, the South African sprinter who won the 100 metres, was evidence of how ‘Britishness’ had been extended to the Empire and how colonials, who were British in all but name, were continuing the traditions of British sporting dominance. Despite this perspective, however, Britain’s global role came to be challenged by the growth of the industrialized economy and military capability of the United States of America (USA). In addition, the 1908 Games revealed the friction between amateur ideals about participating in sport for its own sake and those who believed in winning in order to validate Britain’s right to remain a global power. By the end of these Games, the nationalist Olympic discourse had become standardized, ideologically consistent and predictable.2 For Britons, the term ‘nationalism’ included those living under the umbrella of the British Empire, particularly white colonists in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, with some elite athletes from these countries being recruited into Oxford University as Rhodes Scholars. The later Empire Games were often portrayed as a public celebration of imperialism but imperialism was only one of many debates surrounding both the Olympic and Empire Games. The most notable of these was the role of mass sporting events in expressing local and national identities, the incorporation of imperial competition within the broader confines of international sport and debates about the nature of amateur sport in the face of professionalization.3 For example, while Rhodes Scholars were clearly amateurs, The Quarterly Review expressed alarm in 1904 that such ‘seasoned men’ represented a shift towards professionalism at Oxbridge.4 Whilst much has been written on the subject of Empire and 1 Matthew McIntire, ‘National Status, the 1908 Olympic Games and the English Press’, Media History 15, no. 3 (2009): 271-286. 2 George R. Matthews, ‘The Controversial Olympic Games of 1908 as Viewed by the New York Times and The Times of London’, Journal of Sport History 7, no. 2 (1980): 40-53. 3 Daniel Gorman, ‘Amateurism, Imperialism, Internationalism and the First British Empire’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 27, no. 4 (2010): 611-634. 4 Roberta Park, ‘Athletes and Their Training in Britain and America’, 1800-1914, in Sport and Exercise Science: Essays in the History of Sports Medicine eds. J.W. Berryman and Roberta. J. Park (Illinois University Press, Chicago, 1992), 84. 7 Imperialism, including the Anglo-Boer Wars of 1880-81 and 1899-1902, many gaps still exist in the historiography of sport, Empire and nationalism, and, in particular, individual sporting lives have not been explored in this context.5 The aim of this study is to begin to address these gaps within the literature, by using a case study of a South African athlete, Reginald (‘Reggie’) Edgar Walker, to explore colonial sport both at the level of the individual and, by implication, at the level of British identity. A key part of this study is to place the sporting ideals of amateurism within the pre-First World War period. The author presents, firstly, a review of the existing literature on Empire, Imperialism and sport to help position the case study of Walker into a wider context. This chapter acknowledges the value of individuals as being significant to broader sociological and historical processes6 and increases the understanding of Walker as an individual sportsman and national figure. Nationalism and sport are closely linked, although it is important to note that this relationship varies from one political setting to another and raises a range of different questions, including that of Walker’s identity. One of the notable aspects of this work is exploring how Walker, a South African, was celebrated by the British as one of their own in 1908, only six years after the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Boer War. This rapid acceptance of South African athletes says something particular about nationalism and Imperial identity. Sport is an important element in the construction of social and national identity so it is no surprise that the historiography of sport and nationalism is quite extensive.7 Sporting lives can be particularly emblematic for newly established nation states, the rulers of which may be 5 Dean Allen, ‘Beating Them at Their Own Game: Rugby, the Anglo-Boer War and Afrikaner Nationalism, 1899-1948’, The Intenational Journal of the History of Sport 20, no. 3 (2010): 37- 57; Dean Allen. ‘The Race of Supremancy’: ‘The Politics of ‘White’ Sport in South Africa, 1870-1910’, Sport in Society 14, no. 6 (2011): 741-53; Bernard Porter, The Lion’s Share: A Short History of British Imperialism 1850-2004 (London: Longman, 2004); Bernard Magubane, The Making of a Racist State: British Imperialism and the Union of South Africa, 1875-1910 (Trenton: Africa World Press. Inc, 1996). 6 Graeme Kent, Olympic Follies: The Madness and Mayhem of the 1908 London Games. A Cautionary Tale (London: JR Books, 2008). 7 Mike Cronin and David Mayall, Sporting Nationalisms: Identity, Ethnicity, Immigration and Assimilation (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 1998); James Mangan, Tribal Identities: Nationalism Europe, Sport (Sport in the Global Society) (London: Routledge, 1995); Pierre Lanfranchi, Richard Holt and James Mangan, European Heroes: Myth, Identity, Sport (Sport in the Global Society) (London: Routledge, 1996); Dilwyn Porter and Adrian Smith, Sport and National Identity in the Post-War World (London: Routledge, 2004). 8 inclined to look to sport in their efforts to foster a sense of national unification. It is often the case that sporting heroes, alongside national flags and anthems, are important in promoting unity between people who have been brought together within a constitutional entity that has often been artificially created. However, using national sporting representatives for this political end can be a difficult strategy to manage in situations where people retain deep affinities for their own tribal, ethnic or linguistic groups. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in South Africa where sport has frequently been seen as critical in generating a national identity. Politicians have used sport to establish a sense of national purpose and have recognized sport’s relationship with nationalism, which became a particular focal point in global sport when Olympic athletes were arranged into national teams for the first time in 1908 in London and the national dimension remains an important part of sport.8 In chapter two the thesis discusses Olympism and Internationalism, and the English attitude to sport during the nineteenth-century, a period in which the British ex-public schoolboy and university graduate attempted to both rule and guide change in different parts of the Empire, an essential element of their colonial success.9 Studies on sport and colonialism have previously considered the ways in which sports were imposed on colonial peoples as a means of social segregation, and how sport was utilized by indigenous nationalists to forge national unity and pride.10 Emphasis has also been placed on the analysis of sport as a mechanism of national solidarity, which helps promotes unity and identity. Another nexus of sport is the link with the military. This was most evident in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Germany and Italy, predominantly in sports such as athletics and gymnastics, where sport was endorsed as a way of provoking and facilitating the production of the perfect national body.11 The main body of this work is an in-depth analysis of the life course of amateur and later professional sprinter Reggie Walker, born on 16 March 1889, in Durban, Natal, South Africa, who established himself as the world’s premier sprinter after defeating Canadian Robert Kerr in 8 Allison Lincoln, ‘Handbook of Sport Studies’, in Sport and Nationalism eds. Jay Coakley and Eric Dunning (London: Sage, 2000). 9 Avril M.C. Maddrell, ‘Empire, Emigration and School Geography: Changing Discourses of Imperial Citizenship, 1880-1925’, Journal of Historical Geography 22, no. 4 (1996): 373-387. 10 Mike Cronin and David Mayall, Sporting Nationalisms: Identity, Ethnicity, Immigration and Assimilation (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 1998), 11. 11 Alexander Motyl, Encyclopedia of Nationalism, vol. 2, (London: Academic Press. Inc, 2001), 508. 9 the 100 metres final at the 1908 London Olympic Games at the age of nineteen. Walker’s life course was defined by a sequence of position, transitions and turning points all of which were subject to both personal and environmental influences. Because there is no definitive text on Walker, this biography outlines the rudimentary facts of his life as well as discussing Walker the athlete. Noting the basic details of Walker’s life enables the author to understand his family formations across generations, a narrative that is required in order to conceptualize his life within the contexts of families, society and sport. This analysis is underpinned by the use of primary sources such as birth, marriage and death certificates, war records, shipping manifests and census records. The use of case studies such as this is common practice among researchers who employ the approach in a range of different fields12 and biographical case studies have had a variety of applications in the writing of history. Biographical writing not only presents a closer look into its subject’s personal life but also examines the times and places in which they lived and the historical, social and cultural forces that shaped and influenced their identities.13 In one typical example, Harrison and Lampman examined the life of Paul Robeson as a scholar-athlete, law student and professional football player, and related this to the contemporary paradigm in education, race and sports.14 This study of Walker uses a number of supplementary biographies to help understand the influences and networks that surrounded the South African athlete, especially important when trying to analyze his transition into the role of professional athlete. It needs to be recognized, however, that there is an on-going debate regarding the historical validity of biographies. Norman Denzin argued that in biographical writing there is a tendency towards a ‘constructionist’ position, with a reliance on the ‘text’ and the shaping of ‘text’.15 Interpretation feeds upon interpretation and, as a result, the work can lack both historical insight into the political context and a sociological perspective on society and structure. John Bale suggested that ‘to write of life is the recognition that writing is about representations’ and that 12 Roland Scholz and Olaf Tietjie, Embedded Case Study Methods: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Knowledge (London: Sage Publications Ltd, 2002). 13 Catherine Parke, Biography: Writing Lives (London: Taylor and Francis Group, 2002). 14 Keith Harrison and Brian Lampman, ‘The Image of Paul Robeson: Role Model for the Student and Athlete’, Rethinking History 5, no. 1 (2001): 117-30. 15 Norman Denzin, Interpretive Biography: Qualitative Research Methods (Beverley Hills: Sage Publishing, 1985). 10 the narrative often discovers different ‘layers of truth’ so that biographies can never tell the full story.16 The thesis recognizes these limitations but suggests that the study of individual life courses can add to an understating of a range of issues that cannot be illuminated in any other way. A key theme of the current study, for example, is how Reggie Walker was represented by both the British and South African media. This thesis utilizes British sources such as The Times, Daily Mail and The Morning Post, alongside South African newspapers such as the Afrikaans publication Die Burger and English-speaking papers The Friend, Rand Daily Mail, The Star and The Latest, which was not only read in Durban, but also had a wider circulation and was often quoted in other newspapers. The use of non-English sources has been particularly useful in uncovering material on Walker’s life that helps provide a clearer picture of how he was received at home and abroad. Other national newspapers, such as The Washington Times and the Sydney Morning Herald, assist in exploring how both Americans and Australians responded to Walker’s success. The use of newspapers alone, however, should be treated with some caution since, despite the claims of factual reporting, bias as well as inaccuracies will inevitably exist.17 Collins points out that, even in the late nineteenth century, the sporting press had its own agendas and that reporting was probably as selective and superficial as it is today.18 To support the newspaper sources other important primary resources included archives at the National Library in Cape Town, South Africa, and the British Library in both London and Boston Spa. Further sources accessed included a range of relevant texts such as Reggie Walker’s training manual, the 1908 Official Olympic Report, the Imperial South African Annual Report, and contemporary writings, including Henry Brooks’ book on Natal, a History and Description of the Colony, produced between 1880 and 1920. In addition, material was collected from the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) archives at the University of Birmingham and the British Olympic Association (BOA) archives at University of East London. Pictures represent valuable evidence and the occasional use of photographs here assists further in clarifying and enhancing the written text. Arthur Marwick has long been using visual 16 John Bale, ‘Ernst Jokl and Layers of Truth’, in Sporting Lives, ch. 1, ed. Dave Day (Cheshire: MMU, Institute for Performance Research, 2011). 17 Kitson Clark, Guide for Research Students Working on Historical Subjects (London: Cambridge University Press, 1968). 18 Tony Collins, Rugby’s Great Split: Class, Culture and the Origins of Rugby League Football (London: Taylor and Francis Group, 1998).