3-078-164 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Garrison of London at play: athletic sports at Burton's Court, Chelsea, 1890. '1. Tug of War. 2. Jockey Race. 3. Programme Boy. 4. Marching-Order Race. 5. Pace-Stick Race. 6. Pensioners' Race: Leader 76 years of age. 7. Boot Race for boys of Duke of York's School...The officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the Household Brigade and other regiments stationed in London joined in a public display of military and athletic exercises...at Burton's Court, Chelsea. Major-General Philip Smith, commanding the Home District, visited the ground; and Colonel Paget, of the Scots Guards, Colonel Thynne, Grenadier Guards, Colonel Montgomery, Captain Dalrymple, and other officers acted as judges or starters. Foot-races were not the least interesting part of the competitive performances, and there was a short one for old Chelsea Pensioners, handicapped according to their age; eleven of them ran, one being in his seventy-sixth year, and coming in third. The mile race was won by Private Green, of the 1st Scots Guards. Policemen of the A and B Divisions...had races of their own. The Scots Guards defeated the Grenadier Guards in the "Tug of War." The Grenadier Guards' band, and that of another regiment, enlivened the assembly with music'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.