Archibald MacLaren
Archibald MacLaren (29 January 1820 – 19 February 1884) or Maclaren was a Scottish fencing master, gymnast, educator and author[1] who in 1858 opened a well-equipped gymnasium at the University of Oxford where from 1860 to 1861 he trained 12 sergeants and their officer who then disseminated his training regimen into the newly formed Army Gymnastic Staff (AGS) for the British Army.
[6] Brought up as a Presbyterian, he was educated at Dollar Academy until aged about 16 when he travelled to Paris where he studied fencing, gymnastics and medicine.
The couple had three daughters and two sons: Gertrude Elizabeth (1852–1854); Mabel (1855–1952); Alexander Mitchell Archibald McLaren (1856–1858); Margaret (1859–1938), and John Wallace Hozier MacLaren (1861–1915).
[10][11] In 1857 MacLaren published The Fairy Family, A Series of Ballads & Metrical Tales,[5] illustrated by the then Oxford undergraduate Edward Burne-Jones.
[18] MacLaren devised a system of regularly measuring his clients, regardless of age or sex, to determine the best exercise regime to develop their physical well-being.
[24] Investigations after the War decided that so many had died owing to their poor physical condition, resulting in their inability to fight off the effects of the diseases.
Colonel Hamilton firmly advised that the War Office should institute a similar system of gymnastics training for the British Army.
On completing the course it was apparent that each man's physical fitness had considerably improved and they became the foundation of what was to be called the Army Gymnastic Staff (AGS).
[8] In 1871 MacLaren, described as a 'Schoolmaster and Professor of Gymnastics,'[29] was living at Summerfield House School with his schoolmistress wife Gertrude and their children Mabel, Margaret and John in addition to three servants and 39 boy boarders aged between 9 and 14.
His magnificent Gymnasium at the University, and the marvellous results there produced, constitute only a small portion of the work he has been for many years accomplishing.
