History of Badminton

Histories

Many individuals and groups have written histories of Badminton. Listed here are references to be informative and relative ad free.

• BWF - the official word [20SEP2014]
• BE (formerly BAE)- National Badminton Museum - BE has almost certainly the most extensive collection of Badminton history, dating back to the very early days and including many artifacts. Much of their material can be considered to be primary . [06JUL2020]
• National Organizations have histories that tend to focus somewhat on the host country. For example:
  • Denmark [20SEP2014]
  • USA [20SEP2014]
  • Canada [20SEP2014]

Badminton Village

"Badminton" is a village in England associated with horse racing but also thought to be where the sport of Badminton started. The Badminton Village site includes a history of badminton in the 1800's.

Founding of the BAE and Codification of the Rules

During the earlier years of the sport, badminton was played under a variety of conditions- courts of different dimensions, shuttlecocks and rackets of many designs, even many different sets of rules defining the basic game. The pre-BAE years of 1873 thru 1893 have been researched by Dave Jacobs and posted on his web site (local copy is provided for convenience and reference).  This era ended in 1893 with the founding of the Badminton Association of England and the accompanying codification of the rules. This was accomplished largely thru the efforts of Colonel S.S.C. Dolby , A.P.D who had been playing badminton for more than 20 years and clearly understood the need to standardize the sport. Colonel Dolby's residence , "Dunbar" is recognized as the official birth place of the Badminton Association of England.

The below articles are from the centennial celebration of the founding of the BAE and were contributed by Rod Whiting, the present owner of "Dunbar". This material may NOT be copied without permission. [05FEB2000]

Notes from the centenary celebration , a History of the B.A.E. and of badminton in general up to 1993.

Evolution of the Rules

References

• England's National Badminton Museum maintains a large collection of memorabilia and publishes a fair amount of items online. This is perhaps the best collection of early Badminton in existence.

Page maintained by Stan Bischof. Last updated 07 Jul 2020 13:23