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Sporting and Athletic Records
Hubert Morgan-Browne, “Sporting and Athletic Records”, 1897.
Author:
Hubert Morgan-Brown was a London-based barrister who was born around 1868. He was a member of the National Liberal Club but with leanings towards the Fabian Society. At the time of compiling his book of records he was a member of the British Committee of the Indian National Congress and the Westminster Division of the London School Board. He wrote articles or pamphlets on a number of key social issues, “The Women’s Liberal Federation and Women’s Suffrage” (1890s), “A New Union for Women” (1892), “Women’s Progressive Society (1894/5), “Balfourism, a Study in Contemporary Politics” (1907), “Concerning the Daily Mail by a Reader” (1909), and a series of three articles with H.W. Massingham (Radical journalist and editor of The Star and The Nation), “The War of Armaments” (1908). He was unlucky with money having been robbed of $600 on his first day on a visit to the USA in 1911, and was in court for debt in 1916. He then left Britain and went to live in America. In 1922 he branched into music journalism writing “An Approximation to the Truth about August Wilhelmj” (a German violinist) who taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the time that Morgan-Browne was preparing his book on records.
The importance of Morgan-Browne’s, “Sporting and Athletic Records” in the history of Athletics literature.
Although this is a book about all sports (and some non-sports), this was an attempt to compile a book of “World’s Records and to arrange and systematize other records by the way”. Morgan-Browne consulted all the available published sources, but also garnered information from “secretaries of Athletic Clubs, and Captains of Schools who have courteously supplied me with all the information in their power”, so this book gives records of schools, colleges, and competitions in Britain and America, that are not available elsewhere. His lists of records of the various components of Track and Field are not merely a compilation of other people’s lists; Morgan-Browne often challenges the information he had been given, and ridicules the credibility of others. Professional and Amateur records are given whenever possible. This is an essential book for those interested in athletic standards at the time of the first Olympic Games.
The text:
There are eight sections of records in athletic events, and one of lists of winners:
Athletic meetings
English Amateur Championships
Scottish AAA Records
Irish Amateur Championships
American Amateur Championships
London Athletic Club Meetings [six meetings a year]
Oxford v. Cambridge Sports
American Inter-Collegiate Championships.
Woolwich v. Sandhurst Sports
Inter-Hospital Sports.
Hurdles
British Amateur Records
American Amateur Records
Jumping
World’s Records
British Amateur Records
British Professional Records
American Amateur Records
Putting the Shot and Throwing the Weight.
Putting the Shot
British Amateur Records
American Amateur Records
Throwing Weights
Amateur Records
For Distance
For Height.
Running
World’s Records
By Distance
By Time
World’s Amateur records
By Distance
By Time
British Records
By Distance
By Time
British Amateur Records
By Distance
By Time
American Amateur Records
By Distance
By Time
American Professional Records
School Records
Bedford Modern School
Berkhamsted School
Brighton College
Charterhouse School
Cheltenham College
Christ’s Hospital School
City of London School
Eton College
Felsted School
Fettes College
Giggleswick School
Haileybuy College
Harrow School
Ipswich School
King’s College School
King’s School, Canterbury.
Lancing College
Loretto School
Malvern College
Marlborough College
Merchant Taylors’ School
Mill Hill School
Repton School
Rossall School
Sherborne School
St Paul’s School
Tonbridge School
University College School
Uppingham School
Westminster School
Winchester School
Throwing the Hammer
World’s Amateur Records
British Amateur records
American Amateur Records
Walking
World’s Records
By Distance
By Time
World’s Amateur Records
By Distance
By Time
British Records
British Amateur Records
American Amateur Records
American Professional Records
Miscellaneous Records
Six days’ walk
1,000 miles in 400 consecutive hours
4,000 quarter-miles in 4,000 periods of ten minutes
1,500 miles in 1000 hours
1,977½ miles in 1000 consecutive hours
2,280 miles in 912 consecutive hours
Greatest distance walked without a rest
London to Brighton (about 52 miles)
Appendix
Athletic Meetings
i) Winners of AAA Championships [from 1866]
ii) Winners in the ’Varsity Sports [from 1864]
Morgan-Browne wrote in his introduction that he would welcome correction and additions for use in ‘future issues’, but none appeared. This was the first and last of his listing of Sporting and Athletic Records.
Peter Radford
Bibliographic details:
Title:
Sporting and Athletic Records
Publisher:
Methuen & Co.
Place of Publication:
London
Date of Publication:
1897
BL Catalogue:
General Reference Collection MIC.A.6613.(2.)
"An Athletics Compendium" Reference:
M48, p.196