Dr. William Penny Brookes
Dr. William Penny Brookes (13 August 1809 – 11 December 1895) was an English surgeon, magistrate, botanist, and educationalist who founded the Wenlock Olympian Society, in 1860, which held an annual Games, the first held in 1859 prior to the foundation of the Wenlock Olympian Society. Brookes was born, lived, worked and died in the small market town of Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England but was partly educated in Italy and France. His active campaign to get Physical Education on the school curriculum brought him into contact with Baron Pierre de Coubertin. In 1890, the young French aristocrat visited Much Wenlock and stayed with Dr Brookes. The Society staged a mock Games especially for the Baron and, inspired by the event and his discussions with Brookes, Coubertin went on to set up the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894 which was followed by the Athens 1896 Olympic Games that came under the auspices of the IOC.
Dr. Brookes was a social reformer, who tirelessly campaigned to give opportunities for what he called 'every grade of man' to expand their knowledge and become mentally and physically fit. He established the Agricultural Reading Society to help local people to read in 1841. He established the Olympian Class of that Society in 1850 to help local people to keep fit. It was this Olympian Class that was renamed to Wenlock Olympian Games in 1859. He also opened the door for the working class to enter competitive sport, which, in the United Kingdom, had previously been the privilege of only the elite.
William Penny Brookes was born in Much Wenlock, where his father, William Brookes, was a local doctor. He studied medicine in London, and then traveled to Italy to study at Padua, famous for its 16th century Medieval herb gardens, where he developed his interest in herbal medicines and botany. During further medical studies in Paris at the Sorbonne University, he learned that his father had died, and, returning to Much Wenlock in 1831, he inherited the family home and his father's large medical practice.
As a botanist, he provided information on plants growing around Much Wenlock for Charles Hulbert's The History and Description of the County of Salop (1837), and William Leighton's Flora of Shropshire (1841). His herbarium is held at the Much Wenlock Museum. He also became actively involved in the local community, becoming a Justice of the Peace in 1841 and remaining an active magistrate for nearly 40 years. It is likely that he would have been confronted with cases of petty crime, drunkenness and theft in the local community, which could have influenced his desire to develop the need for structured physical exercise and education for the working classes. Also in 1841, he founded the Wenlock Agricultural Reading Society, an early lending library "for the promotion and diffusion of useful information". From these endeavors evolved various lecture classes including art, music, botany and subsequently the Wenlock Olympian Class. All the lectures and the library founded by Dr. Brookes were open to "all grade of man," such egalitarianism being the subject of criticism.
In 1850, the Agricultural Reading Society resolved to establish a class called "The Olympian Class", "for the promotion of the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Wenlock and especially of the working classes, by the encouragement of outdoor recreation, and by the award of prizes annually at public meetings for skill in Athletic exercise and proficiency in Intellectual and industrial attainments". The first meeting was held in October 1850, and included athletics and country sports such as quoits, football and cricket. The event quickly expanded, and within a few years attracted competitors from as far away as London and Liverpool.
Brookes was a Philhellene, greatly respecting the democratic ideals that ancient Greek society was purported to follow, wherein all men were allowed and indeed expected to vote, take an active part in governance, and compete in sport. In nineteenth century Britain it was only young men educated at exclusive fee paying public schools or the sons of professionals who were able to enter competitive sport; Brookes applied the ethos of the ancient Olympic Games, holding that they were open to "every grade of man," to allow working class men to compete in sport.
When the first Wenlock Olympian Games were staged in 1859, there was heavy criticism of Brookes' insistence that the Games be open to "every grade of man". It was felt that such an event would cause rioting, lewd behavior, and that men would leave their wives. Brookes tirelessly avoided requests to limit the Games to only the pupils of public schools and the sons of professionals. The Games were a huge success and none of the threatened disturbances occurred.
In 1859, Brookes established contact with the organisers of an Olympic Games revival in Athens sponsored by Evangelis Zappas. In 1860, the Class officially became the Wenlock Olympian Society, adopted some of the athletics events from the Athens games, and added them to their program. The first athlete to be listed on the honor roll of the Society was Petros Velissariou (an ethnic Greek from Smyrna, in the Ottoman Empire) who was one of the first international Olympians. In 1865, Brookes helped establish the National Olympian Association (NOA) based in Liverpool. Their first Olympic Games, a national event, held in 1866 at the Crystal Palace, London, was a success and attracted a crowd of over 10,000 spectators. W.G. Grace, the famous cricketer (before he became famous), competed and came first in the hurdles event. The Amateur Athletic Club, later to become the Amateur Athletics Association, was formed as a rival organisation to the NOA. In 1877, he requested an Olympian prize from Greece in honour of Queen Victoria's jubilee. In response, King George I of Greece sent a silver cup which was presented at the National Olympian Games held in Shrewsbury. This brought Brookes into contact with the Greek government, but his attempts to organise an international Olympian Festival in Athens in 1881 failed.
Brookes was also heavily involved in many other local activities. He became Chairman of the Wenlock Gas Company in 1856, which first brought lighting to the town. He was a Commissioner for Roads in the area, and also became a Director of both the Wenlock and Severn Junction Railway Company. The first train to Wenlock coincided with the Wenlock Olympian Games of 1861. He managed the Much Wenlock National School, where, in 1871, he helped introduce drill and physical exercise into the curriculum. He believed that as children at the school were likely to be employed in jobs that required physical strength, such as farming or quarrying, development of their physical strength was equally as important as their mental ability.
When Brookes was undertaking his own education, he always went to the very best teachers. Hence the reason for his travel to Padua in Italy, one of the finest place in the world at that time for learning about herbal medicine and botany, where the medical university is located in the grounds of the Medieval herb gardens. Again he went to the Sorbonne in Paris to seek the best teacher in the field. Brookes was also progressive for his day in noting the link between mental and physical agility.
In 1889, he invited Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the organizer of an International Congress on Physical Education, to Much Wenlock. Meetings between William Penny Brookes and Baron Pierre de Coubertain took place at The Raven Hotel (as did the feast which concluded each year’s Olympian Games), and today in The Raven Hotel there are displayed many artefacts from those early years, including original letters from Baron Pierre de Coubertain to William Penny Brookes. A meeting of the Wenlock Olympian Games was held in de Coubertin's honour in 1890, with much pageantry. On his return to France, de Coubertin gave a glowing account of his stay in an article, "Les Jeux Olympiques à Much Wenlock", and referred to his host's efforts to revive the Olympics. He wrote : "If the Olympic Games that Modern Greece has not yet been able to revive still survives today, it is due, not to a Greek, but to Dr W P Brookes" (a moot point since international Olympic Games had already been held in 1859, 1870 and 1875 in Athens and events from the 1859 Olympic Games sponsored by Evangelis Zappas were adopted in to the programme of future Wenlock Olympian Games). Although de Coubertin later sought to downplay Brookes' influence, he kept in touch with him for several years and sent him a gold medal to be used at the Wenlock games.
Brookes died four months before the Athens 1896 Olympic Games, under the auspices of the IOC, was held in Athens in 1896.
The Wenlock Olympian Society maintains his original ideals, and continues to organise annual games. The William Brookes School in Much Wenlock is named after him.
Dr. Brookes was a social reformer, who tirelessly campaigned to give opportunities for what he called 'every grade of man' to expand their knowledge and become mentally and physically fit. He established the Agricultural Reading Society to help local people to read in 1841. He established the Olympian Class of that Society in 1850 to help local people to keep fit. It was this Olympian Class that was renamed to Wenlock Olympian Games in 1859. He also opened the door for the working class to enter competitive sport, which, in the United Kingdom, had previously been the privilege of only the elite.
William Penny Brookes was born in Much Wenlock, where his father, William Brookes, was a local doctor. He studied medicine in London, and then traveled to Italy to study at Padua, famous for its 16th century Medieval herb gardens, where he developed his interest in herbal medicines and botany. During further medical studies in Paris at the Sorbonne University, he learned that his father had died, and, returning to Much Wenlock in 1831, he inherited the family home and his father's large medical practice.
As a botanist, he provided information on plants growing around Much Wenlock for Charles Hulbert's The History and Description of the County of Salop (1837), and William Leighton's Flora of Shropshire (1841). His herbarium is held at the Much Wenlock Museum. He also became actively involved in the local community, becoming a Justice of the Peace in 1841 and remaining an active magistrate for nearly 40 years. It is likely that he would have been confronted with cases of petty crime, drunkenness and theft in the local community, which could have influenced his desire to develop the need for structured physical exercise and education for the working classes. Also in 1841, he founded the Wenlock Agricultural Reading Society, an early lending library "for the promotion and diffusion of useful information". From these endeavors evolved various lecture classes including art, music, botany and subsequently the Wenlock Olympian Class. All the lectures and the library founded by Dr. Brookes were open to "all grade of man," such egalitarianism being the subject of criticism.
In 1850, the Agricultural Reading Society resolved to establish a class called "The Olympian Class", "for the promotion of the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Wenlock and especially of the working classes, by the encouragement of outdoor recreation, and by the award of prizes annually at public meetings for skill in Athletic exercise and proficiency in Intellectual and industrial attainments". The first meeting was held in October 1850, and included athletics and country sports such as quoits, football and cricket. The event quickly expanded, and within a few years attracted competitors from as far away as London and Liverpool.
Brookes was a Philhellene, greatly respecting the democratic ideals that ancient Greek society was purported to follow, wherein all men were allowed and indeed expected to vote, take an active part in governance, and compete in sport. In nineteenth century Britain it was only young men educated at exclusive fee paying public schools or the sons of professionals who were able to enter competitive sport; Brookes applied the ethos of the ancient Olympic Games, holding that they were open to "every grade of man," to allow working class men to compete in sport.
When the first Wenlock Olympian Games were staged in 1859, there was heavy criticism of Brookes' insistence that the Games be open to "every grade of man". It was felt that such an event would cause rioting, lewd behavior, and that men would leave their wives. Brookes tirelessly avoided requests to limit the Games to only the pupils of public schools and the sons of professionals. The Games were a huge success and none of the threatened disturbances occurred.
In 1859, Brookes established contact with the organisers of an Olympic Games revival in Athens sponsored by Evangelis Zappas. In 1860, the Class officially became the Wenlock Olympian Society, adopted some of the athletics events from the Athens games, and added them to their program. The first athlete to be listed on the honor roll of the Society was Petros Velissariou (an ethnic Greek from Smyrna, in the Ottoman Empire) who was one of the first international Olympians. In 1865, Brookes helped establish the National Olympian Association (NOA) based in Liverpool. Their first Olympic Games, a national event, held in 1866 at the Crystal Palace, London, was a success and attracted a crowd of over 10,000 spectators. W.G. Grace, the famous cricketer (before he became famous), competed and came first in the hurdles event. The Amateur Athletic Club, later to become the Amateur Athletics Association, was formed as a rival organisation to the NOA. In 1877, he requested an Olympian prize from Greece in honour of Queen Victoria's jubilee. In response, King George I of Greece sent a silver cup which was presented at the National Olympian Games held in Shrewsbury. This brought Brookes into contact with the Greek government, but his attempts to organise an international Olympian Festival in Athens in 1881 failed.
Brookes was also heavily involved in many other local activities. He became Chairman of the Wenlock Gas Company in 1856, which first brought lighting to the town. He was a Commissioner for Roads in the area, and also became a Director of both the Wenlock and Severn Junction Railway Company. The first train to Wenlock coincided with the Wenlock Olympian Games of 1861. He managed the Much Wenlock National School, where, in 1871, he helped introduce drill and physical exercise into the curriculum. He believed that as children at the school were likely to be employed in jobs that required physical strength, such as farming or quarrying, development of their physical strength was equally as important as their mental ability.
When Brookes was undertaking his own education, he always went to the very best teachers. Hence the reason for his travel to Padua in Italy, one of the finest place in the world at that time for learning about herbal medicine and botany, where the medical university is located in the grounds of the Medieval herb gardens. Again he went to the Sorbonne in Paris to seek the best teacher in the field. Brookes was also progressive for his day in noting the link between mental and physical agility.
In 1889, he invited Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the organizer of an International Congress on Physical Education, to Much Wenlock. Meetings between William Penny Brookes and Baron Pierre de Coubertain took place at The Raven Hotel (as did the feast which concluded each year’s Olympian Games), and today in The Raven Hotel there are displayed many artefacts from those early years, including original letters from Baron Pierre de Coubertain to William Penny Brookes. A meeting of the Wenlock Olympian Games was held in de Coubertin's honour in 1890, with much pageantry. On his return to France, de Coubertin gave a glowing account of his stay in an article, "Les Jeux Olympiques à Much Wenlock", and referred to his host's efforts to revive the Olympics. He wrote : "If the Olympic Games that Modern Greece has not yet been able to revive still survives today, it is due, not to a Greek, but to Dr W P Brookes" (a moot point since international Olympic Games had already been held in 1859, 1870 and 1875 in Athens and events from the 1859 Olympic Games sponsored by Evangelis Zappas were adopted in to the programme of future Wenlock Olympian Games). Although de Coubertin later sought to downplay Brookes' influence, he kept in touch with him for several years and sent him a gold medal to be used at the Wenlock games.
Brookes died four months before the Athens 1896 Olympic Games, under the auspices of the IOC, was held in Athens in 1896.
The Wenlock Olympian Society maintains his original ideals, and continues to organise annual games. The William Brookes School in Much Wenlock is named after him.