Cambridge University sportsmen during WW1

A spread from The Sketch magazine featuring 76 portraits of Cambridge Blues who had joined up during the First World War. The Sketch comments that, It was a foregone conclusion when war broke out that both Oxford and Cambridge men would enlist in shoals so soon as the call to serve their country reached them. The response from Blues of both Universities has been remarkable and as the men are in the pink of condition, they represent an important factor in the war. The whole of the previous year's cricket eleven had enlisted, as had eight of the football eleven, thirteen of the rugby fifteen, seven swimmer, seven boxing Blues, seven golf Blues, six of last year's Varsity crew, ten hockey Blues, four lawn-tennis players, the billiard Blue, three polo Blues, twenty one athletic Blues, three fencing Blues, one tennis Blue, five lacrosse Blues, four gymnastic Blues, both the racquets Blues and two chess Blues. One wonders how many of them survived the war. See picture no. 10719743 for a similar spread of Oxford University

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