Guided by Twitter: Sports and World War One

One of the facets of war most often ignored by history is not the way in which everyday life was affected, but rather the way it strove to continue in adverse conditions. Sport, in particular, always finds a way to push on and infiltrate even the strangest of places.

Everyone has heard the story of 1914’s Christmas football matches, but there were plenty more examples of sports playing a role in the war, both at home and on the frontlines. With the centenary of the war fast approaching, we’re looking at two Twitter accounts dedicated to remembering fallen sportsmen and those strange moments where normal life seeped in between the bullets and the bombs.

@FootballWW1 is a new Twitter account, with a website to match, that is running as part of the Imperial War Museum’s wider centenary commemorations. It already looks like an invaluable insight into the nation’s favourite sport. One of their bigger projects has been to collate various league tables for every year of the war – a fascinating way to both demonstrate how football was enjoyed in wartime, and also to remind us that once upon a time Oldham Athletic were capable of (almost) topping the league.

Amongst stories of professional footballers who lost their lives during the war, the IWM are also sharing film footage of matches, team photos from the period and information on the FA’s plans for the 100^th anniversary.

Elsewhere, @WWI_sport might be Canadian-run, but is refreshingly international in scope. Better still, it runs the gamut of sports. Everything from ice hockey to gymnastics, by way of baseball and, yes, football is covered. If you’ve ever wondered what the British Army Gymnastics Staff’s motto was then, well, we’ll be surprised. Still, @WW1_sport will tell you!

There’s further insight into how the war boosted women in sport, or Lord Kitchener’s beliefs that cricket were a medicine to be taken twice a week by troops in the summer. Nuggets like these should be treasured!