Bevil Gordon D'Urban Rudd (5 October 1894 – 2 February 1948) was a South African

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

, the 1920 Olympic Champion in the 400 metres.

Biography

Rudd was born in

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

. He was the son of Henry Percy Rudd and Mable Mina Blyth; paternal grandson of

Charles Rudd Charles Dunell Rudd (22 October 1844 – 15 November 1916) was the main business associate of Cecil Rhodes. Early life He was born at Hamworth Hall, Northamptonshire, the son of Henry Rudd (1809–1884), who had a shipbuilding business in Lo ...

, who co-founded the

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...

diamond mining company, and Frances Chiappini and maternal grandson of Captain Matthew Smith Blyth CMG, chief magistrate of the Transkei, and Elizabeth Cornelia Philpott. During his schooling at St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown (Upper House) he excelled both as a student and as an athlete, and he was granted a scholarship for the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Rudd served in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and was awarded a

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

for bravery. Rudd completed his studies in England, and returned to South Africa, working as a sports journalist. He married Ursula Mary Knight, daughter of Clifford Hume Knight the Italian Consul to Cape Town, in 1926; they had at least two sons: Bevil John Blyth Rudd and Clifford Robin David Rudd, the South African Cricketer. In 1930, he became an editor for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', a position he held until after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Shortly after his return to South Africa, he died there at age 53.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudd, Bevil 1894 births 1948 deaths Alumni of St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown Athletes (track and field) at the 1920 Summer Olympics British military personnel of World War I Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of South Africa Olympic bronze medalists for South Africa Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic gold medalists for South Africa Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic silver medalists for South Africa Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Recipients of the Military Cross South African male middle-distance runners South African male sprinters South African people of English descent South African sports journalists Sportspeople from Kimberley, Northern Cape