Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939–45

The Second World War continues to occupy an important position in Britain's collective memory and national mythology. During the so-called people's war, Britons united to support the war effort and defend the nation and its values. As COVID-19 brought Britain—and the world—to a standstill, it was, therefore, no surprise to see public figures call for the “blitz spirit” or to read ventilators described as spitfires and private laboratories as “Dunkirk little ships.” Nevertheless, as Matthew Taylor observes in the introduction to Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939–45, scholars have been slow to explore the war's sporting history. Even as historians of the conflict turned to culture and leisure to examine life on the home front, sport “has been almost completely neglected” (6). Similarly, among historians of sport, scholars have generally held that “not much sport took place and there was neither much debate nor disagreement...