Sir Peter Heatly, (9 June 192417 September 2015) was a Scottish diver and Chairman of the

Commonwealth Games Federation The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), currently known as Commonwealth Sport, is the international organisation responsible for the direction and control of the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games, and is governing body of the ...

. He competed in the 3 m springboard and 10 m platform at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics, at the 1950, 1954 and 1958 British Empire Games, and at the 1954 European Championships. He won five British Empire Games medals and one European medal, while his best Olympic result was fifth place in 1948. Heatly was knighted in 1990, before being inducted into the

Scottish Sports Hall of Fame The Scottish Sports Hall of Fame is the national sports hall of fame of Scotland, set up in 2002. It is a joint project organised by sportscotland, the national governmental body for Scottish sport, and National Museums Scotland. It is also funded ...

in 2002, the Scottish Swimming Hall of Fame in 2010 and the

International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the s ...

in 2016.

Early life

Born in

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

on Coburg Street, Heatly was educated at

Leith Academy Leith Academy is a state school in Leith, Edinburgh. It currently educates around 1000 pupils and around 2,800 part-time adult learners. Mike Irving has been head teacher since August 2017. History It is one of the oldest schools in Scotland, w ...

and began his diving career with

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Amateur Swimming Club (PASC). He was inspired to become a diver after watching

Pete Desjardins Ulise Joseph "Pete" Desjardins (April 12, 1907 – May 6, 1985) was an American diver who competed in the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics. Born in St-Pierre-Jolys, Manitoba, Canada, Desjardins grew up in Florida. In 1924 he won the silver me ...

dive at

Port Seton Cockenzie and Port Seton ( sco, Cockennie ; gd, Cùil Choinnich, meaning "cove of Kenneth") is a unified town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is on the coast of the Firth of Forth, four miles east of Musselburgh. The burgh of Cockenzie was crea ...

. Heatly was eleven years old, and Desjardins asked to see him dive and gave him tips. By the age of thirteen Heatly had become the East of Scotland Champion (1937), and he held this title until the outbreak of

World War II 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 opposing ...

in 1939. The outbreak of war put things on hold; however, Heatly became a record holder in the 440-yards and 880-yards during this time. Heatly studied engineering at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

and continued to train with PASC. Heatly wanted to enlist; however, as he was doing well with his studies at University, he was advised to join the

Officers' Training Corps The Officers' Training Corps (OTC), more fully called the University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), are military leadership training units operated by the British Army. Their focus is to develop the leadership abilities of their members whilst ...

instead. When he graduated from University, he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers, but before he could be posted, the war ended. Heatly became an apprentice at Rosyth's Naval Dockyard; however, he kept up his training at the sports facilities nearby and became a Scottish Freestyle Champion in 1946, a title he kept until 1958. Heatly married Jean Hermiston in 1948; he ran the family business of heating and ventilation, and a building and construction company while competing internationally and raising his four children.

International competitions

At the 1948 Olympics, Heatly placed fifth in the platform and 13th in the springboard. At the

1950 British Empire Games The 1950 British Empire Games was the fourth staging of what is now called the Commonwealth Games. It was held in Auckland, New Zealand between 4 and 11 February 1950, after a 12-year gap from the third edition of the games. The main venue was ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

, New Zealand, he won a gold medal in the platform and a silver in the springboard. Heatly had been unable to practise for most of the five-week journey by ship to Auckland, except for one training session which took place in a U.S. base in

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

. At the 1952 Olympics, Heatly placed 12th in the platform and 16th in the springboard. At the 1954 Commonwealth Games in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, Canada, he won a gold in the springboard and a bronze in the platform. The same year he won a bronze in the platform at the European championships. At the 1958 Commonwealth Games in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Wales, Heatley was appointed as captain and flagbearer for the Scotland Team. He won a gold medal in the platform, and retired from competitions after that.

Later life

Heatly became the Chairman of Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland (now Commonwealth Games Scotland), in 1967–1971, Chairman of the Scottish Sports Council, (now

sportscotland Sportscotland (officially styled sport), formerly the Scottish Sports Council, is the national agency for sport in Scotland. The Scottish Sports Council was established in 1972 by royal charter. The body works in partnership with public, pri ...

), in 1975–87, and Chairman of the

, in 1982–90. Heatly has a unique connection with the Commonwealth Games as he has consecutively attended seventeen games, from 1950 to 2014, in an official capacity as a competitor, organiser, Chairman of the Federation, as the Life Vice President of the Federation, team manager and Chef de Mission. Heatly was also the President of Scottish Swimming on two separate occasions, Chairman of the British Swimming Federation, was a

Councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

for the City of Edinburgh and was an integral part of the planning of the

Royal Commonwealth Pool The Royal Commonwealth Pool is a listed building#Scotland, category-A-listed building in St Leonard's, Edinburgh, St Leonard's, Edinburgh, Scotland that houses one of Scotland's main swimming pools. It is usually referred to simply as the Commonw ...

. He also served in many roles on both the European (LEN) and World (FINA) Technical Diving Committees from 1966 to 1988.

Honours

Heatly was awarded a

CBE 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 o ...

in 1971 and was knighted in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

, before being inducted into the

in 2002, the Scottish Swimming Hall of Fame in 2010 and the

in 2016. He was made Deputy Lieutenant of the City of Edinburgh in 1984, and held honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh (1992) and St Margaret's College (1994).

Personal life

Heatly had four children by his first wife Jean, who was also known as Bertha; she died in 1979. He remarried Mae Cochrane; she was also a widower with four children of her own. Together Peter and Mae had twenty grandchildren; Mae died in 2003. Heatly was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the 1980s but lived with the disease for nearly thirty years before he died. His grandson

James Heatly James Philip Heatly (born 20 May 1997) is a British diver. Career In 2015, at the inaugural European Games held in Baku where the diving events are for juniors only, he won a gold in the 3 metre springboard, a bronze in the 1 metre springboa ...

won a bronze medal in the 1 m springboard at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. James Heatly also won a gold medal in the 10 m mixed synchronised diving at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, partnered by

Grace Reid Grace Elizabeth Reid (born 9 May 1996) is a Scottish diver representing Scotland and Great Britain, and specialising in 1 metre and 3 metre springboard disciplines. She is a double gold medalist at both the European Championships and the Commo ...

References

External links

biography
at the

British Olympic Committee The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both ...

biography
at the Gazetteer for Scotland
biography
at the

Peter Heatly's obituary

Peter Heatly Collection is a part of the Commonwealth Games Scotland Collection at the University of Stirling Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heatly, Peter 1924 births 2015 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish male divers Olympic divers of Great Britain Divers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Divers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Divers at the 1950 British Empire Games Divers at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Divers at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Scotland Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Scotland Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Scotland Scottish knights People from Leith Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Deputy Lieutenants of Edinburgh Knights Bachelor People educated at Leith Academy People in sports awarded knighthoods Commonwealth Games medallists in diving British Army personnel of World War II Officers' Training Corps officers Royal Engineers officers Sportspeople from Edinburgh Medallists at the 1950 British Empire Games Medallists at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games