The ‘Race of Athletes’ of World War I

Abstract

Soon after the Gallipoli landing on 25 April1915, the Australian soldiers were described as a `race of athletes' in the first despatch to make it back to Australia. The use of this sports metaphor by British journalist Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett reflected the prevalence in both Britain and Australia of the late Victorian and Edwardian idea of masculinity which decreed that proving one's manhood on the sports field was preparation for the `greater game' of proving manhood on the battlefield. The notion that Australian men, who excelled at sports before World War I, had at Gallipoli proven themselves and upheld the manhood of their nation found its way into Australian national identity