I have to say that there is not much to describe as to the subject on this card, except that the idea of one man with six legs is rather alarming. So instead of that I will turn the card over and speak of what follows the title, which is that these cards were "A series of 50 exercises by the well-known expert Capt. F.A.M. Webster".
Frederick Annesley Michael Webster was a British Army captain, who worked for the Intelligence Corps during the First World War, and because of that we will probably never know what he did for them, most of it will always remain secret.
We do know that he was born on the twenty-seventh of June, 1886, in St Albans, an only child, and that his father was a surgeon. However when he was almost eleven years old, his father died, and his mother was left to raise him alone. He went to school in St. Albans, and quickly became involved with sport, all kinds, but especially football and cricket. He was a keen player, but tended to be impetuous, and want to go for every chance. It seems to have been decided that team games were not his thing, and so he was asked to try out for the athletics squad. He took to this straight away and won almost every race that was ever held during his time at the school.
He left in 1904, when he was eighteen, and joined what today we would consider the Territorial Army, the 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment. He also started work as an accountant and surveyor, but continued to compete in athletics, both at his old school and open events held in his local or at least reachable area. We know he cycled, as he was part of the Cyclists Section of his Regiment, and this is possibly how he got to the more rural events.
He also wrote about sport, including the 1908 Olympics, which were held at White City. These led to the formation of the Amateur Field Events Association, in 1910, with another man heavily involved in the 1908 Olympics, Arthur Conan Doyle, who became the Chairman, our man becoming Secretary.
The two men got on very well and it is almost certain that Arthur Conan Doyle shared ideas for his stories with our man, and probably also encouraged him, directly, or indirectly to write. At first Mr. Webster`s writing took the form of non-fiction, with several books and treatises about athletics and how to play sports, which were published under his own name, to much acclaim. And he may have continued in this vein if it were not for the outbreak of the First World War.
As he was already serving in the T.A., or its equivalent, he was straight away called up. He seems to have done some soldiering, and also written for the military, for his name appears on an official publication called "The Volunteer Training Handbook", published in 1915. This was obviously aimed at the non-military men who were coming forward to fight from a variety of sources, rather than the military`s own.
Yet in 1915 he was, strangely, listed as being unfit for general service. It is supposed that this was due to a knee injury that he sustained whilst playing football three years prior in a game at his old school, but there is no real evidence that this would have presented any form of active service, and he would have been an officer, more likely to command from base than ever visit the trenches let along fight amongst them. We also know that he was opposed to the decision, and kept trying to be sent overseas to see some action. Eventually this worked, and he was sent out to East Africa, where the war had pretty much all finished; however we know that after hostilities finally ceased he was re-examined, for re-assignment for another military posting, but he was again pronounced unfit.
Instead he came home and was reunited with his wife and three children, who had all been born during the war. To occupy his time, he decided to return to writing, but to have a go at non-fiction. He did not know how well this would go down, and so he wrote under an assumed name, of Michael Annesley, his two middle names reversed. His first novel drew much of its inspiration from Arthur Conan Doyle`s 1902 book "The Hound of the Baskervilles" - it was even called "The Hound of Cullen", but it was set in Ireland, not Dartmoor, and it was published in 1918. It seems likely that his later fiction was also derived from remembered conversations with Arthur Conan Doyle, as several of the other books concerned apes, or ape-like men, and their battles to civilise and tame the humans, often with much conflict, which is redolent of "The Lost World", published in 1912, though there is also something of a similarity to Edgar Rice Burroughs "Tarzan" stories, first published in 1912 as well. And then there was a series which revolved around a female who rules over men, which seems to have been modelled on H. Rider Haggard`s "She, a History of Adventure, published in 1886.
If published today we would classify a lot of his work under the heading of young adult science fiction, but at the time it was aimed at actual adults, which is perhaps more a reflection of our times than his.
His last novel was intended to be along those lines as well, it was called "The Trail of the Skull" and published in 1937. He then went back to the Army, where he was sequestered to the Army Physical Training Corps. However in 1950, a year after his death, a new book appeared. This was called "The Land of Forgotten Women", and it appears that the text of this was found amongst his effects.
By the way, you may be interested to know that one of his sons, Dick, was also athletic, but specialised in the pole vault - so much so that he represented Great Britain at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games, and the 1936 Berlin ones, where he finished in sixth place.
On the surface this appears to simply be a set encouraging exercise, but look at the date and you will realise it is more an attempt to build a fit, fighting force, as events in Europe seem to be escalating towards a Second World War.
Our original Ardath reference book, RB.6, published in 1943, when the war that had been feared had become reality, catalogues the set, or sets, as :
- Sept. 1938. 50. NATIONAL FITNESS (titled series). (Reproductions of exercises by Capt. F. A. M. Webster.) Size 1 7/16" x 2 11/16". Nos. 1-34 for men and 35-50 for women. Printed in 2 colours from half-tone blocks, untitled, black backgrounds, white margins. Numbered on front as well as on back. Backs printed in bronze blue, with descriptions, adhesive, varnished. Issued with State Express and Ardath Cigarettes. Also issued to H.M. Ships and abroad.
- Aug, 1938. 50. NATIONAL FITNESS. As above but not adhesive. Issued in New Zealand.
I was surprised to learn it was not just available in two formats, but also issued overseas, or at least in New Zealand, and circulated there before it was brought over here. Why New Zealand was given it first I have no idea, and it gets even more curious when you find out that the Navy, or other overseas countries, were not given it at the same time as New Zealand.
Now when this set appeared in our original World Tobacco Index, this rather lengthy description had been curtailed, to just :
- NATIONAL FITNESS. Sm. Nd. (50) ... A72-32
A. Adhesive back. Home issue
B. Non-adhesive back. Export issue.
And this is the same entry in our updated version of that book, save a new card code, of A745-440