The Commonwealth Games, the Games was first
proposed by Englishman, Astley Cooper in 1891
as a festival ". Cooper was responsible
for the concept of a sporting contest amongst
the countries of the British Commonwealth. He
wrote an article in 1891 for the magazine ‘Greater
Britain’, suggesting a festival combining
sporting, military and literary events that
would draw closer the ties and increase the
goodwill and understanding of the Empire.
The holding of the first recorded Games between
Empire athletes coincided with the celebrations
in connection with the Coronation of His Majesty
King George the Fifth in 1911, and was known
as the 'Festival of Empire'.
The program consisted of track and field athletics,
boxing, wrestling and swimming events, and a
trophy in the form of a silver cup, 2ft 6in
high and weighing 340oz, the gift of Lord Lonsdale,
was presented to the winning country, which
was Canada.
No further development took place until 1928,
when the Olympic Games were in progress in Amsterdam.
The splendid feelings of friendliness between
the Empire athletes at that Olympiad re-vitalized
the idea for the revival of Empire meetings.
The initiative of a Canadian, M M Robinson,
led to the first official Commonwealth Games
in 1930.
Support was forthcoming from England, Scotland,
Wales and Ireland, with the result that strong
teams were sent to Canada. Teams also came from
Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, British Guiana,
Newfoundland and South Africa. The events at
this meeting comprised track and field athletics,
swimming, rowing, boxing and wrestling, and
lawn bowls. While no points were allotted, it
was fitting that Great Britain filled the premier
position.
The success of the first Games at Hamilton in
1930 provided enough incentive to make them
regular.When teams throughout the Empire were
gathered together at the tenth Olympiad at Los
Angeles in 1932, the formation of the British
Empire Games Federation was further discussed
and the Federation was subsequently constituted.
In 1952 the Federation was retitled "British
Empire and Commonwealth Games Federation".
In Jamaica 1966 it became the "British
Commonwealth Games Federation and in 1974 at
Christchurch the title was again changed to
the "Commonwealth .
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