Harold Maurice Abrahams (15 December 1899 – 14 January 1978)
was an English
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...
athlete. He was
Olympic champion in 1924 in the
100 metres sprint, a feat depicted in the 1981 film ''
Chariots of Fire''.
Biography
Early life
Abrahams's father, Isaac, was a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
immigrant from Polish Lithuania, then part of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...
since the
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...
. He worked as a financier, and settled in
Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst t ...
with his Welsh Jewish wife, Esther Isaacs.
Harold was born in Bedford in 1899. His eldest brother was the physician Sir
Adolphe Abrahams
Sir Adolphe Abrahams (6 February 1883 – 11 December 1967) was a British medical doctor, and he is considered to be the founder of British sports science.
Career
Abrahams was born in Cape Town on 6 February 1883, as the son of Isaac and Esthe ...
(1883 – 1967), the founder of British
sport medicine
Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since the ...
. His middle brother was another British Olympic athlete,
long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...
er Sir
Sidney Abrahams (1885 – 1957).
Abrahams attended
Bedford School
:''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.''
Bedford School is a public school (English ind ...
,
Repton School
Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England.
Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school whi ...
and then
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...
, from 1919 to 1923. Before attending university, Abrahams served as a lieutenant in the British Army.
He afterwards trained as a lawyer. At Cambridge, he was a member of the Cambridge University Athletics Club (of which he was president 1922–1923),
[''Who Was Who – Volume VII – 1971–1980''] Cambridge University Liberal Club
Cambridge University Liberal Association (CULA) is the student branch of the Liberal Democrats for students at Cambridge University.
It is the successor to the Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats, which in turn was formed from the merger of Cam ...
, the
University Pitt Club
The University Pitt Club, popularly referred to as the Pitt Club, the UPC, or merely as Club, is a private members' club of the University of Cambridge, with a previously male-only membership but now open to both men and women.
History
The ...
,
and the
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
Society.
Abrahams was also a member of the
Achilles Club
The Achilles Club is a track and field club formed in 1920 by and for past and present representatives of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Members have won 19 Olympic Gold Medals (most recently Steph Cook in 2000) and held 38 World Records. On ...
, a track and field club formed in 1920 by and for past and present representatives of Oxford and Cambridge universities. One of the club's founding members was
Evelyn Montague
Evelyn Aubrey Montague (20 March 1900 – 30 January 1948) was an English athlete and journalist. He ran in the 1924 Paris Olympics, placing sixth in the steeplechase race. Montague is portrayed in the 1981 film ''Chariots of Fire'', where he i ...
, who like Abrahams is also portrayed in the 1981 film ''
Chariots of Fire.''
Running career
A
sprinter and
long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...
er since his youth, he continued to compete in running while at Cambridge. Abrahams earned a place in the
1920 Olympic team,
but was eliminated in the quarter-finals of both the 100 m and
200 m
The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slight ...
, and finished 20th in the long jump.
He was also part of the British
relay
A relay
Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts
An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off
A relay is an electrically operated switch ...
team that took fourth place in the
4 × 100 m.
[
Although Abrahams dominated British long jump and sprint events, after graduating from Cambridge, he employed ]Sam Mussabini
Scipio Africanus "Sam" Mussabini (6 August 1867 – 12 March 1927) was an English athletics coach best known for his work with Harold Abrahams. In total, he led athletes to eleven medals over five Olympic Games. However, in an era where amateuri ...
, a professional coach, who improved his style and training techniques in preparation for the 1924 Olympics in Paris, France.[
For six months, Mussabini emphasised the 100 m at Abrahams's direction, with the 200 m as secondary. Through vigorous training, Abrahams perfected his start, stride and form. One month before the 1924 Games, Abrahams set the English record in the long jump , a record which stood for the next 32 years.] The same day he ran the 100-yard dash
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length&nb ...
in 9.6 seconds, but the time was not submitted as a record because the track was on a slight downhill.
At the 1924 Summer Games, Abrahams won the 100 m
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...
in a time of 10.6 seconds, beating all the American favourites, including the 1920 gold-medal winner Charley Paddock
Charles William Paddock (August 11, 1900 – July 21, 1943) was an American athlete and two time Olympic champion.
Biography
Paddock was born in Gainesville, Texas to Charles H. and Lulu (Robinson) Paddock. His family moved to Pasadena, Califo ...
. In third place was Arthur Porritt, later Governor-General of New Zealand
The governor-general of New Zealand ( mi, te kāwana tianara o Aotearoa) is the Viceroy, viceregal representative of the Monarchy of New Zealand, monarch of New Zealand, currently King Charles III. As the King is concurrently the monarch of 14 ...
and Queen's Surgeon. The Paris Olympics 100 m dash took place at 7 p.m. on 7 July 1924, and Abrahams and Porritt dined together at 7 p.m. on 7 July every year thereafter, until Abrahams's death in 1978. Teammate Eric Liddell, the British 100-yard dash record holder at that time, declined to compete in the Paris 100 m because one of the heats for the event was held on a Sunday. Both Liddell and Abrahams competed in the final of the 200 m race, with Liddell finishing third and Abrahams sixth. Liddell went on to win the gold medal in the 400 metres
The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is o ...
. Abrahams was the opening runner for the British 4 × 100 m team, which won the silver medal
A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, et ...
. He did not compete in the long jump.[
]
Life after running
In May 1925, Abrahams broke his leg while long-jumping, ending his athletic career. He returned to his legal career as a barrister. In 1928, he was team captain of the British Olympic team at Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
and editor of the Official British Olympic Report for the same games. Subsequently, he worked as an athletics journalist for forty years, becoming a commentator on the sports for BBC radio. In 1936, he reported the Berlin Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-s ...
for the BBC. Later in his life, he also became president of the Jewish Athletic Association, and served as chairman for the Amateur Athletic Association
The Amateur Athletic Association of England or AAA (pronounced 'three As') is the oldest national governing body for athletics in the world, having been established on 24 April 1880. Historically it effectively oversaw athletics throughout Britai ...
(AAA).[
Abrahams wrote a number of books, including ''Oxford Versus Cambridge. A Record Of Inter-University Contests From 1827-1930'' (co-written with John BRUCE-KERR), ''The Olympic Games, 1896–1952'' and ''The Rome Olympiad, 1960''.]
Although not an official timer, Abrahams was present when Roger Bannister
Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister (23 March 1929 – 3 March 2018) was an English neurologist and middle-distance athlete who ran the first sub-4-minute mile.
At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister set a British record in the 1500 metres an ...
broke the four-minute mile in 1954.
Abrahams died in Enfield on 14 January 1978, aged 78. He was buried in the same grave as his wife Sybil Evers
Sybil Marjorie Evers (19 June 1904 – 24 June 1963) was an English singer and actress. She performed in operettas, operas and plays in London from the early 1920s through the late 1930s, including on BBC radio and television. She married Olympic ...
, in Saint John the Baptist Churchyard in Great Amwell, Hertfordshire.
Personal life
While at Cambridge, Abrahams was romantically involved with the seriously academic Christina McLeod Innes, and they became informally engaged, but their relationship waned and ended as Abrahams began focusing exclusively on his athletics and the Olympics. In early 1934, he met D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. Th ...
singer Sybil Evers
Sybil Marjorie Evers (19 June 1904 – 24 June 1963) was an English singer and actress. She performed in operettas, operas and plays in London from the early 1920s through the late 1930s, including on BBC radio and television. She married Olympic ...
, and they began a passionate on-and-off romance. According to his biographer Mark Ryan, Abrahams had a fear of commitment and old-fashioned ideas about the role of women in marriage, but he was able to overcome these, and the couple wed in December 1936. In the film '' Chariots of Fire'', Evers is misidentified as D'Oyly Carte soprano Sybil Gordon
Sybil Gordon (22 March 1902 – 17 December 1981) was an English singer and actress.Stone, David Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 23 September 2020, accessed 15 November 2020 She is best remembered for her performances in Gilbert and ...
(portrayed by Alice Krige), and the film portrays the couple as meeting a decade earlier than they actually did.
Abrahams cut a strip of gold off his Olympic medal to make the bridal wedding ring. Both the medal and the ring (following Sybil's death) were later stolen, on separate occasions.
Sybil Evers could not have children, so they adopted an eight-week-old boy, Alan, in 1942, and a nearly three-year-old girl, Sue, in 1946; Sue later married nuclear activist Pat Pottle
Patrick Brian Pottle (8 August 1938 – 1 October 2000), a long-time anti-war campaigner, was a founding member of the Committee of 100, an anti-nuclear direct action group which broke away from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). He was ...
.[Oxbury, Harold (1985)]
''Great Britons: Twentieth-Century Lives.''
Oxford University Press. p. 2. . During the Nazi regime and war, the couple also fostered two Jewish refugees: a German boy called "Ken Gardner" (born Kurt Katzenstein), and an Austrian girl named Minka.
Evers died in 1963 at the age of 59, and Abrahams set up two awards in her name: the Sybil Evers Memorial Prize for Singing (1965–1995), an annual cash prize awarded to the best female singer in her last year at the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, and the Sybil Abrahams Memorial Trophy, presented each year from 1964 onward at Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...
by the Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not prod ...
, President of the British Amateur Athletics Association, to the best British woman athlete.
Abrahams was active in freemasonry
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
.
He was a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
, which was portrayed in '' Chariots of Fire''.
Honours
Abrahams was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
(CBE) in 1957. Abrahams has been recognised with an English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term ...
at his former home in Golders Green in northwest London, which was unveiled by his daughter Sue Pottle and nephew Tony Abrahams. Abrahams lived at Hodford Lodge, 2 Hodford Road, from 1923 to 1930, years during which he achieved his greatest successes.
A plaque from the Heritage Foundation was unveiled at his birthplace, Rutland Road in Bedford, on 8 July 2012. This coincided with the Olympic torch relay passing through the town.
Abrahams was immortalised in the 1981 film '' Chariots of Fire'', in which he was played by British actor Ben Cross
Harry Bernard Cross (16 December 1947 – 18 August 2020) was an English stage and film actor. He was best known for playing Billy Flynn in the original West End production of the musical ''Chicago'', and his portrayal of the British Ol ...
. The film won four Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, including Best Picture. His memorial service serves as the framing device for the movie, which tells his story and that of Liddell.
Abrahams was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ( he, יד לאיש הספורט היהודי, translit=Yad Le'ish HaSport HaYehudi) was opened July 7, 1981 in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around ...
in 1981 and into the England Athletics Hall of Fame
The England Athletics Hall of Fame was launched in 2008 with a panel of experts selecting a list of potential inductees for athletics fans and members of the public to vote on. The Hall of Fame honours those who have made an outstanding contribut ...
in 2009.
In July 2012, plans were announced to erect a memorial to Abrahams in Telford, Shropshire
Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in the same direction. With an ...
to recognise that before the 1924 Olympics he won a gold medal in the 100-yard sprint at the Midlands Area AAA championships at St George's Recreation Club ground.[The report only mentions the event taking place "Weeks before the Paris Olympics".] The memorial, in the form of a plaque, was unveiled by Sue Pottle in October 2014 in the lounge of the club, which now possesses the medal he won at the event.
Norris McWhirter once commented that Abrahams "managed by sheer force of personality and with very few allies to raise athletics from a minor to a major national sport". Reflecting in 1948 on Abrahams' athleticism, Philip Noel-Baker, Britain's 1912 Olympic captain and a Nobel Prize winner, wrote:
I have always believed that Harold Abrahams was the only European sprinter who could have run with Jesse Owens
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.
Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lif ...
, Ralph Metcalfe, and the other great sprinters from the U.S. He was in their class, not only because of natural gifts – his magnificent physique, his splendid racing temperament, his flair for the big occasion – but because he understood athletics and had given more brainpower and more will power to the subject than any other runner of his day.
Archives
Archives of Harold Abrahams are held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
.
See also
* David Jacobs, the first British Jew to win an Olympic Gold Medal
* List of select Jewish track and field athletes
Notes
References
*Dee, David. "'Too Semitic' or 'Thoroughly Anglicised'? The Life and Career of Harold Abrahams," ''International Journal of the History of Sport'' (2012) 29#6 pp 868–886
* Ryan, Mark. ''Running with Fire: The True Story of Chariots of Fire Hero Harold Abrahams''. Robson Press, 2012 (paperback edition). .
External links
*
*
*
*
Database Olympics – 1924 Summer Olympics
''The Real Chariots of Fire''
– 2012 documentary
*
England Athletics Hall of Fame citation
Graves of Sybil and Harold Abrahams (at findagrave.com)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrahams, Harold
1899 births
1978 deaths
Burials in Hertfordshire
Military personnel from Bedford
English Olympic medallists
Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain
Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain
Olympic athletes of Great Britain
Athletes (track and field) at the 1920 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1924 Summer Olympics
BBC sports presenters and reporters
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
English male sprinters
English Jews
English people of Polish-Jewish descent
Jewish male athletes (track and field)
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees
Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
People educated at Bedford School
People educated at Repton School
Sportspeople from Bedford
Medalists at the 1924 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field)
English people of Welsh descent
British Army officers
British Army personnel of World War I