15 A contemporary eyewitness: W. F. Rowlands, The Plain and the People (The Livingston Press, 1937).
16 To steel herself for the daily adversities: Jenny Liddell, Memories of China Days.
17 She was at ‘death’s door’: Ibid.
18 She called him ‘Yellie’: Ibid.
19 He walked so awkwardly: Ibid.
20 In the cocoon of childhood: Ibid.
21 He uttered his first Chinese phrase: Ibid.
22 On the day she sailed back to China: Ibid.
23 Augustus Pountney Cullen: Interview with APC’s daughter Joanna Cullen-Brown.
24 The 1918 school championships: Eltham School records.
25 Later told a friend: Arthur Green, BBC interview, not broadcast.
26 The dreary commonplace of practice: EL’s own account (publication unattributed).
27 His church was Morningside Congregational: R. G. Davies and A. Pollock, Morningside Congregational Church, The Story of Fifty Years, 1887–1937 (privately published, 1937).
28 He was compared to …: a startled deer, Grantland Rice, New York Herald Tribune, 12 July 1924; a windmill, Harold Abrahams in M. Ryan, Running with Fire; a terrified ghost, press agency accounts of his Olympic win, 12 July 1924, reported in the Evening News, Harrisburg.
29 Liddell relied on humour: EL’s stories about himself were published in most newspapers after his Olympic success; this comes from the Hartlepool Mail, 18 July 1924. He retold them in Weihsien, later telling his friend Steve Metcalf that he’d also done so well before his Paris gold medal.
30 To force him into change: EL outlined the mechanics of his running, his diet and homilies to a ‘Mr Chivers’, a fan who received a letter from him dated 19 February 1926.
31 During the remainder of his first season: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
32 The prizes piled up: Jenny Liddell, BBC interview. Also EL’s own account (publication unattributed).
33 Assessing his first phenomenal summer: Glasgow Herald, 11 August 1921.
34 Not everything went so smoothly: EL’s own account (publication unattributed).
Chapter Two
1 Eric Liddell could identify precisely: Date and time from the diary of D. P. Thomson (unpublished).
2 Armadale was not the sort of place: Details from the Armadale Historical Society.
3 As Thomson conceded: Account from D. P. Thomson, Eric Liddell: The Making of an Athlete and the Training of a Missionary (ELMC, 1946) and Scotland’s Greatest Athlete: The Eric Liddell Story (The Research Unit, 1970).
4 C. T. Studd’s Heart of Africa Mission: N. Grubb, C. T. Studd: Cricketer and Pioneer (Lutterworth Press, 1970).
5 The number of his digs: Edinburgh Telephone Book, 1923.
6 ‘He really couldn’t tell’: D. P. Thomson, Scotland’s Greatest Athlete.
7 An unprepossessing town hall: Details from photograph supplied by Armadale Historical Society.
8 ‘A secret disciple’: D. P. Thomson, Scotland’s Greatest Athlete.
9 For the morning after: Russell W. Ramsey, God’s Joyful Runner (Bridge Publishing, 1987); Glasgow Herald, 29 and 30 June and 1 July 1925.
10 ‘I was brought up in a Christian home’: David McCasland, Eric Liddell: Pure Gold (Discovery House Publishers, 2001).
11 D. P. Thomson had been born: F. Bardgett, Scotland’s Evangelist, D. P. Thomson (Kindle edition), and an interview with the author.
12 The American Frank Buchman: Obituary, The Times, 9 August 1961.
13 The light lilt of Scots: Several friends spoke about Liddell’s accent, including Marcy Ditmanson (OMS Outreach Magazine, November/December 1988) and Joe Cotterill, Joyce Cotterill and Steve Metcalf in interviews I conducted with them.
14 ‘In scarcely more than a whisper’: Scotsman, 5 June 1925; Sunday Times, 13 July 1924.
15 As one correspondent wrote: Scotsman, 17 July 1924.
16 One sermon presented the quintessential Liddell: Interview with Steve Metcalf. EL told him he had learned this story at Eltham.
17 Time and again Liddell returned to the term ‘be perfect’: EL’s own book The Disciplines of the Christian Life (SPCK, 1985).
18 From Armadale onwards: Ibid.
19 Liddell didn’t write out rigid compositions: Page found in his Bible, which now belongs to his daughters.
20 He kept a profusion of fountain pens: Scottish Daily Express, 5 December 1948.
21 ‘If I take a fish’: Peking and Tientsin Times, 20 January 1926. This was clearly a favourite line of EL’s. It appears in other reported sermons.
22 ‘Better than I have ever heard him’: From D. P. Thomson’s diary.
23 A ‘waste of £5’: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
24 ‘The week before’: Ibid.
25 He was often asked why championship times: Ibid.
26 One story – surely apocryphal: M. Watman, History of British Athletics (Robert Hale, 1968); Dictionary of National Biography; G. Butler, Runners and Running; F. A. M. Webster, Great Moments in Athletics and Olympic Cavalcade.
27 ‘The most misplaced direction of energy’ (and subsequent Abrahams quotes): M. Ryan, Running with Fire.
28 ‘It was a grilling, hot day’: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
29 ‘I surprised even myself’: Ibid.
30 ‘When he smother-tackled you’: A. A. Thomson (no relation to D. P. Thomson), Rugger My Pleasure (SBC, 1967).
31 ‘Rugby … a blessing and a small curse’: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
32 ‘It had exactly the opposite effect’: D. P. Thomson, Scotland’s Greatest Athlete.
33 The race began on a bend: Stoke Sentinel, 14 and 16 July 1923; The Times, 16 July 1923.
34 ‘No thanks’: Letter to D. P. Thomson from an athlete, unnamed, who helped EL to his feet.
35 As ‘Mr Baker’: Philip Baker may have added his wife’s surname to his own shortly after their marriage in 1915, but newspapers continued to use only Baker until much later. He is now known only as Noel-Baker and I have used it throughout to avoid confusion. Biographical details of his life come from D. J. Whittaker, Fighter for Peace (William Sessions Ltd, 1989). Also, EL’s recollections of Noel-Baker from Steve Metcalf, and Arthur Marshall, The Marshall Story (Patrick Stephens, Ltd, 1994).
36 ‘The analogy is similar’: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
37 Raised in that all-male environment: Interview with EL’s daughters.
38 Liddell the young man had begun to call on the artist: Biographical details from D. Hart-Davis, Wildings: The Secret Garden of Eileen Soper (Whiterby, 1991); D. Wootton and F. Pearce, The Art of George and Eileen Soper (produced by Chris Beetles Ltd for the Soper estate). The connection between Eileen Soper and EL came about after he stayed with one of her father’s friends, Ralph Holder. Wildings was used as a name for the house only after EL knew it. I refer to it as such to avoid confusion and because Wildings is now so firmly established in relation to Eileen Soper’s work.
Chapter Three
1 Comfortably settled in the upholstered leather: Details of the workings and composition of the BOA from the organization’s minutes held at the University of East London. Biographical details from Who’s Who and Debrett’s throughout the 1920s.
2 Lavish dinners were held at the Savoy: The Times, 11 January 1923.
3 Funding for the British Olympic team: Details of the British Olympic team from the Daily Mail: 14 March and 27–30 June 1923; 9 April, 24 and 31 May, 3, 6 and 20 June 1924.
4 In spats and a flat-topped silk hat: Newspaper photograph from the BOA archive.
5 ‘No one seems to know or care’: Minutes in the BOA collection.
6 There was a debate: Ibid.
7 The Association hired the London department store: Ibid.
8 ‘Ghastly’: M. Ryan, Running with Fi
re.
9 Cadogan called the uniform ‘serviceable and neat’: Minutes in the BOA collection.
10 According to Abrahams, it was a ‘little miserable’: M. Ryan, Running with Fire.
11 The draft timetable for the Games: Ibid.
12 The BOA didn’t understand Olympic history: F. A. M. Webster, Great Moments in Athletics and Olympic Cavalcade; A. Guttmann, The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games; B. Henry, An Approved History of the Olympic Games; S. Greenberg and B. Frei, Olympic Games: The Records (Guinness, 1987); Geoff Tibballs, The Olympics’ Strangest Games (Robson, 2004); David Miller, The Official History of the Olympic Games and the IOC: Athens to Beijing (Mainstream, 2008).
13 He’d already stated his opposition: Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 31 March 1924; Guardian, 14 July 1924.
14 He dropped out of an international: The Times, 28 and 30 July 1923.
15 As Britain beat the French: Dundee Evening Telegraph, 30 July 1923.
16 The BOA did none of this: BOA papers.
17 ‘My Sabbath lasts all day’: Ibid. Also, Boston Daily Globe, 12 July 1924.
18 Liddell liked to recite what he called ‘the three sevens’: Interview with EL’s daughters.
19 As Peter Fryer points out: In Mrs Grundy: Studies in English Prudery (Dobson, 1963).
20 Signing himself ‘Olympian’: Evening Standard, 28 December 1923.
21 ‘They hammered on the door’: Greville Young, Sporting Witness (BBC World Service) and George Graham-Cumming, BBC interview.
22 The religious newspaper: Life of Faith, 26 July 1924.
23 Level-headedly lamented: Daily Mail, 28 June 1924.
24 In favour of the local boy: Edinburgh Evening News, 4 January 1924.
25 Alfred George: Biographical details from The Times, 20 June 1934.
26 Walter George: Biographical details from R. Hadcraft, Beer and Brine (Desert Island).
27 In one piece about Paris: All Sports Illustrated Weekly, 11 February and 5 July 1924.
28 A vicar in Aberdeen: Aberdeen Journal, 2 July 1924.
29 He was likened to ‘Daniel’: British Weekly, undated.
30 In a widely syndicated column: Motherwell Times, 4 July 1924.
Chapter Four
1 As Liddell would later confess: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
2 He was ‘hurt’: Annie Buchan, BBC interview.
3 He made an ally: Binks’s articles about Liddell’s preparation for the Games appeared in the News of the World on 20 January, 2 and 16 March, 11 May, and 8, 15 and 28 June 1924.
4 Liddell was invited to guest for the Achilles Club: Interview with Steve Metcalf. Also, Edinburgh Evening News, 13 February 1924; Yorkshire Post, 19 March 1924; New York Times, 24–25 April 1924.
5 The bare details make the journey seem horrendous: Interviews with EL’s daughters.
6 Liddell was an inadequate fourth: Athletics News and Cyclists Journal, 5 May 1924 (see also 18 February, 21 April and 19 May 1924).
7 Before sailing, Liddell said: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
8 On the ship home: Arthur Marshall, The Marshall Story.
9 ‘My motto’: Russell W. Ramsey, God’s Joyful Runner; Sunday at Home (magazine), October 1925; interview with Steve Metcalf.
10 ‘He plotted out the vital stages’: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
11 ‘Always, when running the quarter’: Letter to Mr Chivers.
12 ‘Slowness in becoming perfectly fit’: Ibid.
13 McKerchar was ‘handling me beautifully’: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
14 A ‘friendly tussle’: George Graham-Cumming, BBC interview.
15 Only in Paris: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly. For Paris in the 1920s: D. Franck, The Bohemians (Weidenfeld, 2001); A. J. Hanson, Expatriate Paris (Arcade, 2012); R. Davenport-Hines, A Night at the Majestic (Faber, 2005); D. J. Taylor, Bright Young Things: The Rise and Fall of a Generation, 1918–1940 (Chatto, 2007).
16 Once, when pointedly asked how he won races: Greville Jones, The Flying Scotsman (BBC, 1984).
17 ‘Even late as it is’: All Sports Illustrated Weekly, 11 February 1924.
18 Philip Noel-Baker was particularly supportive: Interview with Steve Metcalf. Also, biographical detail on Noel-Baker from the Noel-Baker Archive.
19 Liddell still had to overcome stabs of self-doubt: Philip Christison, The Flying Scotsman (BBC), and Christison’s unpublished memoir from the Imperial War Museum, London.
20 ‘Cherry ripe’: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
21 The opening ceremony in Paris: Pathé News film and photographs from the IOC archive (olympic.org).
22 A photographer caught him with his head turned: University of Birmingham archive.
23 Correspondents christened Abrahams ‘The Cambridge Cannonball’: BOA archive (news cutting is undated).
24 In the second he sped up: M. Ryan, Running with Fire.
25 An exchange with Abrahams: From EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
26 A. B. George had claimed: All Sports Illustrated Weekly, 5 July 1924.
27 ‘The papers now and then reminded me’: Ibid.
28 Fitch kept an Olympic diary: Published in instalments in the Alton Democrat between 11 October 1924 and 17 January 1925.
29 A typical forecast: Sunday Chronicle, 29 June 1924.
30 Euphoric afterwards: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
31 Next morning Liddell read reports: Ibid.
32 ‘It surprised me as much as anyone’: Interview with Fitch from National Masters News, April 1984.
33 Just one voice among the Americans thought differently: Jack Moakley’s warning from David McCasland, Pure Gold.
Chapter Five
1 There were headline performances in Paris: Details of Olympic Games from A. Guttmann, The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games; B. Henry, An Approved History of the Olympic Games; F. A. M. Webster, Great Moments in Athletics and Olympic Cavalcade; S. Greenberg and B. Frei, Olympic Games: The Records; David Miller, The Official History of the Olympic Games and the IOC: Athens to Beijing; F. G. L. Fairlie, The Official Report of the VIII Olympiad (BOA, 1924).
2 ‘Come quickly, your comrade is dying’: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
3 ‘More vividly imprinted on my memory’: Ibid.
4 Liddell still overheard him squabbling: Ibid.
5 ‘Curiously enough I was quite cool’: Ibid.
6 He had been handed a folded square of paper: Letter from the unnamed masseur to D. P. Thomson in 1945. Liddell, though referring to the incident on his return from Paris (Edinburgh Evening News, 15–18 July 1924), never identified who gave him the note. The BOA papers in Birmingham University show three masseurs were taken to Paris: Argot Johansson of Sheffield, E. G. Horwood of Cambridge, and Wilfred Smith of London. Horwood died in 1941 and I could find no trace of Johansson in Britain after the war. Smith, therefore, is the most likely candidate.
7 Stagg told Fitch there was ‘no need to worry about Liddell’: National Masters News, April 1984.
8 ‘Despite the times the others had put up’: EL’s own account of his running career in All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
9 When Joe Binks wandered down from the press box: Recollection of Binks from News of the World, 21 September 1941.
10 ‘Go all out – and don’t be behind at the last straight’: EL’s account from All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
11 ‘He went off at such a terrific pace’: M. Ryan, Running with Fire.
12 Marshall can’t believe what he’s seeing: Arthur Marshall, The Marshall Story.
13 ‘Can I last home?’: EL’s account from All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
14 ‘Not until I got to the top of the straight’: Ibid.
15 ‘A comforting thought flashed into my mind’: Ibid.
16 ‘I had no idea he would win it’: National Masters News, April 1984, and the Denver Post, 13 June 1982.
17 ‘I was amazed to find’: EL’s account from All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
18 He confessed to being ‘more amazed’ at his time: The International Amateur Athletic Federation initially awarded Liddell the world record. This was later revoked. The record reverted to the American Ted Meredith, whose 47.4 seconds over 440 yards (not metres) was recorded in 1916.
19 Liddell and Fitch posed together: Description of the aftermath of victory and the Tango Tea Dance: Ibid. Also, interview with Steve Metcalf; Arthur Marshall, The Marshall Story; Horatio Fitch’s diary.
20 ‘If the papers want to call me the Flying Parson’: EL’s account from All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
21 The news agency Reuters: Daily Express, 14 July 1924.
22 ‘Very fortunate’: EL’s account from All Sports Illustrated Weekly.
23 What he got were barbed questions: Details of the aftermath of the Games: The Times, 21, 23 and 24 July 1924; New York Times, 23, 24 and 25 July 1924; Guardian, 24 and 26 July 1924.
Chapter Six
1 Eric Liddell expected only a handful of well-wishers: London Evening News, 15 July 1924.
2 He now knew what Jim Thorpe felt: New York Times obituary, 29 March 1953; K. Buford, Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe (Random House, 2010).
3 One of Liddell’s housemates: George Graham-Cumming, BBC interview; P. Donovan, The Radio Companion (HarperCollins, 1991).
4 Treasure Island: Radio Times, 5–11 July 1924.
5 Repeated at Waverley: Edinburgh Evening News, 16 July 1924; Scotsman, 16 July 1924.
6 Serendipity dictated: Details of the graduation and his subsequent speech from: Edinburgh Evening News, 17–18 July 1924; Guardian, 17 July 1924; Scotsman, 17 July 1924; Daily Mail, 18 July 1924; Dundee Courier, 18 July 1924.
For the Glory Page 38