Bowled over by the health and beauty of these superfit women

IT’S known today as the Fitness League, but for its first 69 years it went under a different name: the Women’s League of Health and Beauty.

It was created in 1930 by Mary Bagot Stack, whose vision was of a league of women “who will renew their energy in themselves and for themselves day by day”. She believed in the power of women to make the world a better place to live in.

After just seven years, it had 166,000 members. Mary herself died in 1935, aged just 50, but her work was carried on by her daughter Prunella and friends Peggy and Joan St Lo.

The war saw many members and teachers joining up for national service and though there was a post-war increase in numbers – this picture, a demonstration of physical fitness coupled with a balancing display, dates from 1954 – the extraordinary pre-war growth would not be repeated. The WLHB became the Fitness League in 1999 and in 2006 it was a founder partner of the Exercise, Movement and Dance Partnership.

In a 1990 Herald interview, Mary’s daughter, Prunella Stack, referring to a forthcoming Diamond Jubilee event, spoke of the league’s lasting impact on its members. “Many of the 1,400 performers ... are grandmothers like me and they are just as supple, just as slim, as their daughters and grand-daughters. In fact we’ve asked them to wear leotards in different shades of blue so that we can tell the difference.”