A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



The Games were held under the auspices 

 of the International Olympic Committee a 

 body instituted at the Athletic International 

 Congress held in Paris in June 1893. It 

 comprises the representatives of the principal 

 European countries and of the United States, 

 under the presidency of Baron Pierre de 

 Coubertin, the chief originator of the revival 

 of the Olympic Festival. 7 The functions of 

 this committee are, however, mainly limited 

 to the selection of the country in which the 

 games are to be held, and the control of and 

 arrangements for those of London was en- 

 trusted entirely to the British Olympic Coun- 

 cil, as the sub-committee appointed for the 

 purpose in the country thus selected. 8 Both 

 the chairman and the hon. secretary of the 

 Council Lord Desborough and the Rev. R. S. 

 de Courcy Laffan are members of the Inter- 

 national Olympic Committee ; 9 and its thirty- 

 eight members were respectively appointed by 

 the English governing authority of every sport 

 forming part of the programme, and by such 

 similar authorities in other parts of the United 

 Kingdom as chose and were able to be repre- 

 sented. 10 Captain F. W. Jones acted as 



' The Olympic Games, B.C. 776 to A.D. 1896, 

 pt. ii, 1-8. 



8 Article North American Review, June 1900, 

 pt. 8, sup. pp. 803, 804. 



9 The Olympic Games of London, 1908. List ol 

 members of Council. 



10 The Times article on ' The Games of London,' 

 1 8 July, p. 1 8. The following list of members 

 is given in The Olympic Games of London, 1908, 

 cit. sup. : The Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, 

 Automobile Club ; Maj. -General the Lord Chey- 

 lesmore, C.V.O., chairman of Council National 

 Rifle Association ; Sir Lees Knowles, bart., chair- 

 man Motor Yacht Club ; H. Benjamin, esq., ex- 

 president Amateur Swimming Club ; E. A. 

 Biedermann, esq., hon. sec. Tennis and Racquets 

 Association ; J. Blair Blair, esq., Scottish Cyclists' 

 Union ; T. W. J. Britten, esq., hon. . treas. 

 National Cyclists' Union ; Michael J. Bulger, esq., 

 M.D., Irish A.A.A. ; Guy M. Campbell, esq., 

 F.S.A., Amateur Fencing Association ; Lieut.- 

 Colonel C. R. Crosse, sec. National Rifle Associa- 

 tion ; J. H. Douglas, esq., president Amateur 

 Boxing Association ; D. S. Duncan, esq., hon. 

 see. Scottish A.A.A. ; W. Hayes Fisher, esq., 

 president National Skating Association ; Major F. 

 Egerton Green, Hurlingham Club ; R. G. Gridley, 

 esq., hon. sec. Amateur Rowing Association ; 



F. B. O. Hawes, esq., hon. sec. Lacrosse Union ; 

 W. Henry, esq., sec. Royal Life Saving Society ; 



G. Rowland Hill, esq., president Rugby Football 

 Union ; Captain A. Hatton, F.S.A., president 

 Amateur Fencing Association ; W. J. Leighton, 

 esq., M.B., vice-president Irish A.S.A.; E. Law- 

 rence Levy, esq., hon. sec. Amateur Gymnastic 

 Association ; G. R. Mewburn, esq., hon. sec. 



assistant secretary, and Mr. W. Henry, hon. 

 secretary Royal Life Saving Society, as 

 Director of the Stadium. The bulk of the 

 extensive and varied work of the Council was 

 distributed amongst four Standing Committees 

 the Art Committee, responsible for prize 

 and the commemorative medals designed by 

 Mr. Bestwick McKerral ; the Finance Com- 

 mittee ; the Housing and Entertainment 

 Committee ; and the Programme (virtually the 

 Executive) Committee, dealing with all the 

 details of the athletic side of the Games. 11 

 The management of each branch of the 

 Games was placed entirely in the hands of 

 the association governing that sport in this 

 country, which provided all officials, &c., and 

 was responsible for the proper conduct of the 

 competitions ; but, though the representatives 

 of foreign countries took no part in the man- 

 agement unless especially requested to do so 

 in any particular instance, each nation or 

 country competing had the right to appoint 

 three members of a ' comit6 d'honneur,' 12 

 through which any protests or objections 

 made by competitors from that nation or 

 country were conveyed to the proper 

 authority. 13 



In a letter of 20 June Lord Desborough 



Lawn Tennis Association ; Colonel G. M. Onslow, 

 National Physical Recreation Society ; E. J. 

 O'Reilly, esq., Irish Cyclists Association ; W. 

 Ryder Richardson, esq., hon. sec. Amateur Golf 

 Championship Committee ; G. S. Robertson, esq., 

 Juror at Olympic Games, Athens, 1906 ; C. 

 Newton Robinson, esq., Yacht Racing Association ; 

 A. G. Stoddart, esq., sec. Queen's Club ; E. H. 

 Stone, esq., Clay-Bird Shooting Association ; A. H. 

 Sutherland, esq., chairman Amateur Wrestling 

 Association ; E. Syers, esq., hon. sec. Figure 

 Skating Club ; H. M. Tennent, esq., hon. sec. 

 Hockey Association ; F. J. Wall, esq., sec. Foot- 

 ball Association ; Colonel H. Walrond, hon. sec. 

 Royal Toxophilite Society. 



11 The Times, 18 July, p. 18. 



11 Ibid. ' Nationality' as a qualification of com- 

 petition was more strictly defined than in previous 

 games. 



" " Few greater compliments to English fair play 

 than the delegation to our great associations of the 

 whole judging in these games [says a member of 

 the Council writing in Bailey's Magazine for Septem- 

 ber 1 908, p. 21 6] have ever been paid either by the 

 International Olympic Committee or by any similar 

 body; and the general regulations, approved by the 

 official representatives of every competing nation, 

 are the real basis of the international code of sport 

 authorized by the International Olympic Com- 

 mittee of 1907, which was accepted by the twenty 

 different competing nations, as endorsed by the 

 signed entries of their competitors, and which was 

 translated into French and German and sent to 

 every competitor before the games began." 



296 



