Phyllis Colson was born in London in 1904 and attended Liverpool College for Girls at Huyton as a boarder before going to Bedford Physical Training College in 1923. She was an outstanding student and described as a brilliant teacher and taught physical education in schools from 1926 to 1930.

Arthritis of increasing severity made itself evident soon after she left Bedford Physical Training College and made her realise that she didn’t have a long term future as an active teacher.

She therefore accepted an appointment as organiser of Physical Education for the National Organisation of Girls’ Clubs (1930-1933).  Her great administrative ability, boundless energy, and sense of purpose enabled her to secure the cooperation of a wide variety of people and in 1935 she founded the Central Council of Recreative Physical Training.

The Central Council of Physical Recreation (as it became known in 1943) served as an umbrella organisation to pioneer, stimulate and co-ordinate opportunities for young people to participate in every kind of physical activity. The Keep Fit movement was the best known aspect of the Council’s work.  In December 2010 the CCPR became known as the Sport and Recreation Alliance, an independent organisation for the national governing and representative bodies of sport and recreation in the United Kingdom.

Phyllis served as General Secretary of the CCPR until 1963 and was made Honorary Life Vice-President in 1966.  Outside of her busy working life, most of her time was devoted to the care of disabled children.

She became an Honorary Life Member of the Physical Education Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and was awarded the Titre Honorifique de la Fédération Internationale d’Education Physique and the King Gustavus Gold Medal in 1945, the William Hyde Award in 1953, and received the CBE in 1964.

Exhibition curated by Adriano Di Carlo, Reader Services