The First World War prompted the recruitment and training of British soldiers on an unprecedented scale. And they all needed to be prepared for one of the deadliest, most gruelling conflicts in human history.

Physical training, bayonet fighting training and hand-to-hand combat all fell under the instruction of the Army Gymnastic Staff, which grew from 200 to 2,000 officers and instructors between 1914 and 1918. Adam W. Culling, Curator of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps Museum, has collected here a number of training and equipment manuals, books, photographs and inspirational lectures. Together these provide an insight into how the physical training instructor kept the British soldier Fighting Fit.

• Published

  to coincide with the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, when

  interest will be at a peak.

• Plenty of previous success with the ‘Manual’

  format, using facsimile material, for example Amberley Spitfire Manual

• Will be of interest to fitness enthusiasts (huge

  interest in Boot Camp style training at the moment) as well as to the nostalgia

  and WW1 markets

• Author is the curator of Royal Army Training

  Corps Museum, so has unbeatable access to primary materials