Physical Culture at the Albert Hall

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

Physical Culture at the Albert Hall is an article first published in the Herts & Cambs Reporter on 20 september 1901.

About the Eugen Sandow's "Physical Culture" competition at the Royal Albert Hall on 14 september 1901 where Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the judges.


Physical Culture at the Albert Hall

Herts & Cambs Reporter
(20 september 1901, p. 3)

The attendance at the Albert Hall to witness the "Physical Culture" competition numbered between 7,000 and 8,000 people. The prizes were given by Mr. Eugen Sandow, and were offered to physical athletes of this country. The first was a gold statuette, value £500, of Sandow, by Pomeroy; the second, a silver replica; and the third, a bronze. The weakness of most of the strong men proved to be in their legs; and the possession of magnificent shoulders and arms with hips and thighs by no means out of the ordinary put many of them out of the running. After a long process of elimination by the painstaking judges, Sir Charles Lawes, sculptor and all-round athlete, and Dr. Conan Doyle, with Sandow himself as referee, the number of competitors was reduced to three, and of these a man of medium size, but of almost perfect symmetry of figure — Mr. W. L Murray, of Nottingham — obtained the trophy of gold, Mr. D. T. Cooper, of Birmingham — a bigger man, but with less perfect legs — the silver statuette, and Mr. A. C. Smythe, of Middlesex, the bronze to one. As the result of the competition, £600 will be handed to the Lord Mayor as a contribution to the War Relief Fund, Mr. Sandow bearing the whole of the expenses.