COL J. Scott Napier
COL Napier
COL J. Scott Napier was Inspector of Physical Training from 1897-1905. Napier was a high speed Gordon Highlander. He knew the system and got over eighty gyms built in different parts of the country. He also built swimming pools. The Army would not help Napier, so he raised the money himself.
In the early days of Colonel Napier's tenure of office, there arose between the fencing-room and the swimming pool, a structure known as the "Outdoor Gym." It consisted of a framework of massive square wooden upright, the bottom of which were embedded in the ground, and the tops securely fastened together by cross-pieces. It was approximately 25 feet high, 60 feet long, by 20 feet wide., iron stanchions were fixed round the top, to which a rope was made fast for the student to steady himself. The primary means of ascending or descending was by ladder and strong wide planks with smooth surfaces fixed in a sloping position from the ground to the top of the structure. Other methods of descent were by ropes and round wooden poles, suspended from the cross-pieces.