John Hulley – British Olympic Instigator

JOHN HULLEY – BRITISH OLYMPIC INSTIGATOR By Ray Hulley 1. Introduction Many of us will look forward to the London Olympic Games in 2012 and I will be particularly keen because I have discovered a strong Hulley connection to the Olympic Games during my family history researches in the past 4 years. I have been researching my surname since 1980, and in November 2006 I came across an article about a John Hulleyof Liverpool in the Winter 2001 edition of the Journal of Olympic History. Extract from Winter 2001 edition of the Journal of Olympic History page 13 The title included a representation of the 5 Olympic rings and the mystery was because he had been the forgotten man of British Olympic history and all trace of him after 1868 had been lost. Never shirking a challenge of this nature, I decided to follow up this lead to try to solve the mystery. I discovered that Hulley had been born in Liverpool in 1832 and was a descendant of a Hulley family from Frodsham and previously Macclesfield. I have researched this family back to 1488 so he is well founded. His father, 2 uncles, a grandfather and great grandfather had been surgeons or physicians and another uncle had been a chemist and druggist. The following Family Tree shows 4 generations of ancestors of John Hulley. Ancestors of John Hulley 2. Research My next step was to find out more about John and his family in Liverpool and I discovered him in 1841 living at Gloucester Street Liverpool with his mother.1 1841 census Gloucester Street Liverpool He had had a keen interest in physical activities, education and fitness and it was reported that in his early years he had been taught by Louis Huguenin, the famous French gymnast who had settled in Liverpool in 1844 as a teacher of Gymnastics. John attended Huguenin’s school in a court at the top of Lord Street for several years before matriculating from the Collegiate Institute, Shaw Street, Liverpool in 1850.2 Collegiate Institute, Shaw Street, Liverpool In 1851 John was a visitor to his Uncle Hugh Speed’s Brookhouse Farm at Huyton where no doubt he enjoyed the fresh air and farmyard activities.3 1851 census Brookhouse Farm Huyton 3. The Role of Physical Education John Hulley’s first public presentation was given on 25 April 1861at the Theatre Royal Liverpool, and was part of a display by members of the 79th Lancashire Volunteer Rifles, (composed predominantly of the middle class) entitled "A Grand Assault of Arms." By the kindness of Colonel M. Martyn, of the 2nd Life Guards, several of the picked swordsmen of that regiment were permitted to take part in the contests. Theatre Royal Liverpool John Hulley who was a member of the 79th, opened the proceedings by delivering an address on "Physical Education," in which he said – There is scarcely one of us whose physical state is what it ought to be. Poor, weak, pale, dyspeptic beings we are, unworthy of the name of a man, whatever learning or mental attainments we may possess. We may dazzle our fellow men by these one-sided accomplishments, we may win their short- sighted praise, but we shall not cheat nature, nor reap ought but her punishment to us and our children. When our day of physical affliction comes, as come it certainly will, to everyone who neglects his body, when the retribution head is laid heavily on ourselves and on our children, then shall we feel the vanity and delusiveness of our preference for one set of our faculties above the other. A man who cultivates his personal appearance and takes a pride in his handsome and athletic figure is called a coxcomb, while the puny delicate man of letters, who exalts in his mental superiority, and who boasts of the triumph of mind over matter, is thought to have a noble and excusable pride. The attention and reverence for physical beauty is one of the best safeguards for health and manly vigour. Beauty of face and figure is only to be maintained and perpetuated to coming generations by exercise of our body powers and is one of the best signs of a well-spent life. In truth the great want of physical beauty and manly strength and elegance of frame, which is so widespread among us, is as distressing and as deeply to be deplored, as the prevalence of moral evil, of which, in fact, it is the outward and visible type. No qualities of mind can make up for this sinful and miserable neglect of the body. The moral virtues themselves are to be promoted at present through the physical ones, for in the present state of physical degradation, in which we live, it is a vanity to imagine that high moral excellence can prevail. Therefore the earnest culture of the bodily powers by every one of us is the surest means to elevate mankind. We should not be contented with a low standard of physical elevation. We should make it our religious aim, that every one of us, man, woman, and child, should possess a large, powerful frame, whose blooming health shall set consumption and other diseases of debility, at deliverance. Each man and woman should take as much pride, in the cultivation of the bodily as of the mental faculties, feeling deeply that the grand truth, that the interests of our race are just as much bound up in the right development of the ones as of the other. We should not be content until the thews and sinews, the powerful bodied and manly minds of our ancestors become prevalent among us and are blended with the advantage of our advanced civilisation, with our greater enlightment and refinement, and a longer average of life, we should cultivate all those sports and manly exercises which promote bodily health and vigour, just as sedulously as we cultivate any other branch of education, for no amount of mental cultivation, intellect, or wealth will ever make up to a community for the lack of manly mode ability and pluck. History is full of examples of intellectually developed nations, but intellectual only, falling a prey to others of inferior mental calibre, but of daring and overwhelming physique. Therefore we should have an equal honour to physical as to mental excellence. Whenever we see it, we should learn to take an equal pleasure in it, and to have an equal reverence for the physical and the mental sciences and to attain to a well valued grandeur a like of the material and of the moral universe.4 John Hulley was again living at farm in Huyton in 1861, but this time he was a visitor to his uncle Edward Speed at Woolfall Hall where there were 90 acres on farmland. 5 1861 census Woolfall Hall Huyton Another “Assault at Arms” organised by John Hulley was again held at the Theatre Royal on 5 December 1861, with Hulley repeating the address given at the same place in April.6 4. The First Liverpool Olympic Festival In June 1862 John Hulley initiated the first Grand Olympic Festival at the Mount Vernon Parade Ground in Liverpool, which was a forerunner of several of these competitions with a physical prowess flavour. In the advertisement for the Festival it was stated that no effort would be spared by the Committee not only to render the Festival worthy of its immortal title, but also to make it the means of drawing more public attention to the important subject of physical education. 7 Mount Vernon Parade Ground Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded in these 3 competitions: 1100 yards Steeplechase; 1½ mile Race; 4 mile Walking Race. Silver and bronze medals were awarded in the following competitions: Fencing; Vaulting; ½-mile Race for LAC members; Broadsword; Boxing; Throwing the Disc; Sabre v. Bayonet; 120 yards Race; Throwing the Cricket Ball; Jumping; 300 yards Race; Indian Club Exercises; Leaping; ½-mile Race for Youths; Dumb-bell Exercises. A gold medal or ten guineas was also awarded for the best essay on Physical Education. The Festival was a success and Mr Melly, President of the Liverpool Athletic Club said that before they left the ground he thought it was his duty to tell them through whose exertions that delightful afternoon’s amusement had been afforded to them. They were indebted for it to Mr John Hulley, the excellent honorary secretary of the club, and it was entirely owing to his indefatigable and praiseworthy exertions that the festival had been brought to such a successful and highly satisfactory issue. Mr Melly then called for three cheers for Mr Hulley, which were given right heartedly, with "one cheer more.” The report ended with wholesome praise for John Hulley. “ It is due to Mr. Hulley that the whole direction and management of the festival devolved upon him. He was unremitting in his exertions throughout the day, and there is no doubt that to his courtesy and zeal that the successful issue of the undertaking was mainly attributable.8 5. Establishment of the Rotunda Gymnasium, Bold Street Liverpool Later in 1862 the Rotunda Gymnasium was established in Bold Street, Liverpool by a partnership between John Hulley who looked after the Gymnasium side of the business, and Samuel W. Ackerley, who raised the capital for a mortgage deposit on the premises. It was clearly understood between them that Hulley’s practical experience was to be considered as of equal value with his capital. Ackerley was to look out for premises and both took steps to secure the Rotunda in joint names The actual purchase, however, was made in Mr Ackerley’s sole name, but with a clear understanding that if in future the property was sold the profit should be equally divided between them.

Load more