The MacDougall Centre was the University's sports centre based in Burlington St., near the main campus. It opened in 1940 following a benefaction from a local businessman, and included a swimming pool and gymnasium (as well as a base for the University's Senior Training Corps). The Centre was headed by a Director, Roland Harper (1907-1989), who was also a senior lecturer in physical education. The file includes several letters and memoranda by Harper concerning the development of physical education as an academic subject, including a paper he delivered at a conference ion this subject in Manchester in 1949. There is also material relating to the running of the Centre, which was supervised by a committee of the University. Of particular interest are wartime arrangements at the Centre when it was used for military training, as well as a description of the bomb damage caused to the building during an air-raid in October 1940.
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