The Stoke Mandeville Games

German neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttmann was one of the founding fathers of organised physical activities for disabled people and it was his pioneering rehabilitation work at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, England, which led to the development of the Paralympic Games as we know them today.

Guttmann spent his early career in Germany but, as life became increasingly difficult for Jews under the Nazi regime, in 1939 the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) assisted the passage of Guttmann and his family to Oxford, England. In September 1943, Guttmann founded the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital - there were no shortage of cases due to the number of injured young men returning home from the war.