Reginald Hargreaves Harris
OBE (1 March 1920 – 22 June 1992) was a British
track
Track or Tracks may refer to:
Routes or imprints
* Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity
* Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across
* Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...
racing cyclist in the 1940s and 1950s. He won the world amateur
sprint title in 1947, two
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
silver medals in 1948, and the professional title in 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1954. His ferocious will to win made him a household name in the 1950s, but he also surprised many with a comeback more than 20 years later, winning a
British title in 1974 at the age of 54.
Early life
Harris was born as Reginald Hargreaves at 7 Garden Street,
Birtle,
Bury, Lancashire
Bury ( ) is a market town on the River Irwell in Greater Manchester, England. Metropolitan Borough of Bury is administered from the town, which had an estimated population of 78,723 in 2015.
The town is within the Historic counties of Englan ...
,.
[Oxford National Biography, UK] His mother, Elsie Hargreaves, a cotton weaver,
remarried and Reginald took the name of his stepfather, an engineer and businessman called Joseph Harris.
Reg Harris left school without qualifications and his first job was as an apprentice motor mechanic in Bury, soon moving from the workshop to the salesroom.
During this period, at the age of 14, he bought his first bicycle, and entered a roller-racing competition organised by the
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
bicycle manufacturing company.
Amateur career and military service
His ability attracted the attention of other cyclists and Harris joined the Bury section of the
Cyclists' Touring Club
Cycling UK is a trading name of the Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC), which is a charitable membership organisation supporting cyclists and promoting bicycle use. Cycling UK is registered at Companies House as "Cyclists’ Touring Club", and is cov ...
and then its racing offshoot, the Lancashire Road Club.
In 1935, he won his first race, a half-mile handicap event held on a grass track in Bury, and also started competing in
individual time trial
An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa a cronometro'' "stopwatch stage"). There are also track-b ...
s.
Harris moved from the motor mechanics job to a slipper factory, then, in early 1936, to a
paper mill
A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, ...
which he felt would pay him enough in the winter to spend the summer training and competing. During 1936, he raced on grass tracks in Lincolnshire,
then competed in and won his first events in conventional competition at
Fallowfield Stadium
Fallowfield Stadium was an athletics stadium and velodrome in Fallowfield, Manchester, England. It opened in May 1892 as the home of Manchester Athletics Club after it was forced to move from its home next to Old Trafford Cricket Ground. Fallowfi ...
in
Fallowfield
Fallowfield is a suburb of Manchester, England, with a population at the 2011 census of 15,211. Historically in Lancashire, it lies south of Manchester city centre and is bisected east–west by Wilmslow Road and north–south by Wil ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
.
In early 1937, he was confident he could support himself as an athlete, selling the prizes he won as an amateur,
and left the paper mill to focus on the summer cycle racing season, returning to the mill the following winter (repeating the process the following year). He continued to win races and attract attention, and by the summer of 1938 was able to beat the existing British
sprint champion. At the end of that season, he joined
Manchester Wheelers' Club
Manchester Wheelers' Club is a cycling club in Manchester, in north-west England.
Formation and early history
The club was formed on 7 July 1883, as Manchester Athletic Bicycle Club, the name being changed to Manchester Wheelers' Club in 1890. Th ...
, and in 1939 won a major race in
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
, leading to his selection for the world championship in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. He travelled to Milan and had familiarised himself with the
Velodromo Vigorelli
Velodromo Vigorelli (from 2001 officially Velodromo Maspes-Vigorelli) is a semi-covered velodrome in Milan, Italy. It is currently used mostly
for American football events, in fact, surrounded by the track, there is a standard size football f ...
when
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 opposin ...
broke out and the British team was recalled to the UK.
Harris joined the
10th Hussars
The 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army raised in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the First World War and Second World War but then amalgamated with the 11th Hussars (Prince ...
in the
North African campaign as a
tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
driver but was wounded, transferred to the
Royal Army Service Corps
The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and dom ...
, and later invalided out of the services as medically unfit in 1943. He liked to joke that he was one of the few men to leave the army less fit than when he joined.
Despite the judgment of the army medics, in 1944, he won the , quarter-mile and five-mile (8 km) national cycling championships. He retained the two shorter titles in 1945 and added the half-mile on grass. He was invited to race in Paris in 1945 and again impressed the crowds, and he was expected to do well in the 1946 world championships in
Zurich,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, only to have his chances ruined by an over-enthusiastic pre-race massage. Harris's amateur world championship achievements were celebrated in 1947 when ''
Cycling Weekly
''Cycling Weekly'' is a British cycling magazine. It is published by Future and is devoted to the sport and pastime of cycling. It used to be affectionately referred to by British club cyclists as "The Comic". '' awarded him his own page in the ''
Golden Book of Cycling
The ''Golden Book of Cycling'' was created in 1932 by ''Cycling'', a British cycling magazine,
to celebrate "the Sport and Pastime of Cycling by recording the outstanding rides, deeds and accomplishments of cyclists, officials and administrat ...
''.
[The Golden Book of Cycling - Reg Harris, 1947. Archive maintained by 'The Pedal Club'.](_blank)
/ref>
By the time Harris won the world amateur sprint title in Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
in 1947, he was already employed and equipped by bicycle manufacturer Claud Butler
Claud Butler (14 July 1903 – 2 November 1978) was a London-based bicycle dealer and frame-builder, who from 1928 created a chain of bicycle-retail shops in London and the Midlands.The Bicycle, UK, 23 July 1952, p12 His company was one of the ...
and was testing the boundaries of amateurism
An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist.
History
Hist ...
. The cycling world expected that Harris would take three titles in the 1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...
: the sprint, the tandem sprint and the kilometre time trial, but three months before the London Games, he broke two ribs in a road accident. After hospital, with a few weeks remaining to the games, training, competing and winning, he fell in a ten-mile (16 km) race at Fallowfield and fractured an elbow. Completing the rest of his preparation in a plaster cast, he had to be satisfied with two silvers, being beaten by Italy's Mario Ghella in the final of the sprint, and partnering Alan Bannister to second place in the tandem sprint (timetable constraints meant Harris's place in the kilometre was taken by another rider, Tommy Godwin, who won a bronze medal). Two weeks later, he claimed a bronze medal in the 1948 world championships sprint in Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
. He was named sportsman of the year by a poll in 1949, winning by 7,000 votes over the football player, Billy Liddell.
Professional career
On his return from Amsterdam, Harris turned professional under sponsorship of the Raleigh
Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...
bicycle company. He was paid £1 000 a year with a bonus of £100 if he won a world championship, £50 for every grand prix and £25 for every British record. Harris was aware of his commercial attraction to race promoters and even as an amateur drove a Jaguar Mark IV. His earnings in the 1950s have been put at £12 000 a year. He dominated Raleigh's advertising for a decade and, despite coming from a sport with no great following in Britain, he was as familiar as Stanley Matthews
Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while stil ...
and Stirling Moss
Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...
.
In 1949 he won the world professional sprint championship in Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
– a victory he repeated the following two years in Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
and Milan. He then won a fourth and final world professional title in Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
in 1954. He won the Sports Journalists' Association
The Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) is an association for British sports journalists. It represents the British sports media on the British Olympic Association's press advisory committee and acts as a consultant to organizers of major events ...
's accolade of ''Sportsman of the Year'' in 1950, and was runner-up in 1949 and 1951.
He retired in 1957 to devote himself to business interests, none of which suited his tastes or abilities. He managed Fallowfield Stadium
Fallowfield Stadium was an athletics stadium and velodrome in Fallowfield, Manchester, England. It opened in May 1892 as the home of Manchester Athletics Club after it was forced to move from its home next to Old Trafford Cricket Ground. Fallowfi ...
, renamed the ''Harris Stadium''; he was involved in various abortive ventures associated with Raleigh; and he started a 'Reg Harris' bicycle manufacturing business in Macclesfield which lasted three years before folding. He then worked in sales promotion for the 'Gannex
Gannex is a waterproof fabric composed of an outer layer of nylon and an inner layer of wool with air between them. It was invented in 1951 by Joseph Kagan, a United Kingdom, UK industrialist and the founder of Kagan Textiles Ltd., of Elland, whi ...
' raincoat company, before working for two plastic foam producers.
In the 1960s he owned and managed the Reg Harris Petrol & Motor Service Station on Wilmslow Road
Wilmslow Road is a major road in Manchester, England, running from Parrs Wood northwards to Rusholme. There it becomes Oxford Road and the name changes again to Oxford Street when it crosses the River Medlock and reaches the city centre.
Th ...
in Didsbury
Didsbury is a suburban area of Manchester, England, on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 26,788.
Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, there are ...
, Manchester, which is now the site of the Shell Petrol Station on the corner of Grange Road.
In 1971, he returned to racing, winning a bronze medal in the British championship in Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
after little preparation. With more training behind him, he approached the British championship in Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
in 1974
Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...
in more confident mood, and beat Trevor Bull to win the title at the age of 54. In 1975, he returned to Leicester, but was narrowly beaten by Bull in the final and had to settle for the silver medal. He continued to cycle almost to his death.
Legacy
A memorial to his achievements can be found in the National Cycling Centre
The HSBC UK National Cycling Centre is a multipurpose cycling venue in Sportcity, Manchester, United Kingdom. It includes an indoor Velodrome and a BMX arena and outdoor mountain bike trials. It also has offices for British Cycling, the governi ...
in Manchester.
Harris's achievements are marked annually with the Reg Harris Sportive, organised by his family and friends. The inaugural event on 25 August 2013 raised money for charities.
In popular culture, Harris is referenced in the ''Hancock's Half Hour
''Hancock's Half Hour'' was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Galton and Simpson, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sid James, Sidney James; the r ...
'' episode 'The Junkman'.
Personal life
He was married three times. The first two marriages (in 1944 to Florence Stage (daughter of the former Bury F.C.
Bury Football Club is an English association football club based in Bury, Greater Manchester, whose team last played in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football, in the 2018–19 season. The team are known as "The Shakers", and ...
captain Billy Stage), then to Dorothy Hadfield) ended in divorce. He married Jennifer Anne Geary in 1970. He died in Macclesfield
Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east ...
, Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, of a stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
, survived by his third wife, and was buried at St John's Church in the north Cheshire village of Chelford
Chelford is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England, near to the junction of the A537 and A535 roads six miles (10 km) west of Macclesfield and six miles south-east of Knutsford, and is part of the Tatton constituency. The civil ...
.
Career achievements
Major results
Source:
;1939
:1st Sprint, Vi-Tonica Gold Cup
;1944
: National Track Championships
::1st
Sprint (Amateur)
::1st
5-mile (Amateur)
;1945
:1st
Sprint (Amateur), National Track Championships
;1946
:1st Sprint, Muratti Gold Cup
:1st Sprint, Vi-Tonica Gold Cup
:1st
Sprint (Amateur), National Track Championships
;1947
:1st
Sprint (Amateur), Track World Championships
:National Track Championships
::1st
Sprint (Amateur)
::1st
Tandem sprint (Amateur)
;1948
:1st
Tandem sprint (Amateur), National Track Championships
:Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
::2nd
Sprint
::2nd
Tandem sprint (with Alan Bannister
Alan Bannister (born September 3, 1951) is a retired professional baseball player who played in the major leagues for the Philadelphia Phillies Chicago White Sox (1976–80), Cleveland Indians Houston Astros (1984) and Texas Rangers Original ...
)
:3rd
Sprint (Amateur), Track World Championships
;1949
:1st
Sprint, Track World Championships
;1950
:1st
Sprint, Track World Championships
;1951
:1st
Sprint, Track World Championships
;1953
:3rd
Sprint, Track World Championships
;1954
:1st
Sprint, Track World Championships
;1956
:2nd
Sprint, Track World Championships
;1974
:1st
Sprint, National Track Championships
Grand Prix
Grand Prix Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
1946, 1951, 1956
Grand Prix Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
1949 und 1954 bis 1957,
Grand Prix Aarhus
Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...
1956,
Grand Prix Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, 1950,
Grand Prix Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
1954 und 1955,
Grand Prix London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
1955 und 1957,
Grand Prix Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
1950, 1952 und 1956,
World records
Source:
Awards and honours
* Bidlake Memorial Prize: 1947, 1949
* '' Daily Record'' Sportsman of the Year: 1949
* Sports Journalists' Association
The Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) is an association for British sports journalists. It represents the British sports media on the British Olympic Association's press advisory committee and acts as a consultant to organizers of major events ...
Sportsman of the Year: 1950
* 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 ...
: 1958
Events
January
* January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.
* January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
* January 4
** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...
See also
* List of 1948 Summer Olympics medal winners
* List of British cyclists
__NOTOC__
A
* Adrian Adgar
* Dave Akam
* Caroline Alexander
* Eddie Alexander
* Ian Alsop
* Katie Archibald
* Lizzie Armitstead
* Dan Atherton
* Gee Atherton
* Rachel Atherton
* George Atkins
* Brenda Atkinson
B
* David Baker (cyclo) ...
* List of Olympic medalists in cycling (men)
This is the complete list of men's Olympic medalists in cycling.
Current program
Road cycling
Road race, individual
Time trial, individual
Track cycling Keirin
Madison
Omnium
Pursuit, team
Sprint, individual
...
* List of people from Bury
This is a list of people from the metropolitan borough of Bury in North West England. It includes people from the town of Bury and also people from the towns of Radcliffe, Prestwich, Whitefield, Tottington, Ramsbottom, and other places which ...
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
Reg Harris Sportive
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Reg
1920 births
1992 deaths
10th Royal Hussars soldiers
British Army personnel of World War II
Cyclists at the 1948 Summer Olympics
English male cyclists
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Olympic cyclists of Great Britain
Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain
Sportspeople from Bury, Greater Manchester
Olympic medalists in cycling
UCI Track Cycling World Champions (men)
Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Royal Army Service Corps soldiers
English track cyclists