Scotland's best athlete (and missionary) ever - Eric Liddell

Eric Liddell (1902–45) was born in Tientsin/Tianjin in China, son of Rev & Mrs James Liddell, Scottish missionar­ies with the Lon­d­on Mis­sion Society. Eric and brother Rob were left at Eltham Col­l­ege in SE London, a Christian boarding school for missionar­ies’ sons; meantime his parents and sister Jenny returned to China. During those years, their parents, sister and new brother Ernest came home on leave 2-3 times and were able to be together as a family, mostly in Edinburgh.

Scotland's international rugby team, 1922

Liddell was right front

In 1921, Eric joined his brother at Edinburgh Uni, to stud­y Pure Science. He’d always been a good sportsman, ex­cel­l­ing in rug­by union and cricket; now he was playing international rugby union for Scot­land. But it was ath­letics that played a major role in his Univers­ity life, training for the Olympics Games. He ran in the 100 ms and the 220 ms for Edinburgh University, and later for Scot­land. What a sportsman!

When he set a new Br­itish record in the 100m sprint in 1923, Eric was con­sidered a great prospect for the Paris Olympics in 1924. The team travelled to Paris days before the Olympics started, enjoying a big send-off at Victoria Station.

Remember that Liddle had given up international rugby to concentrate on his Olym­pic am­bitions. But Liddell was also a committed Protestant Ch­ris­t­ian. And bec­ause the Paris Ol­y­mpics heats of the 100m sprint, his str­ongest event, were held on Sund­ay (Christian Sabbath), he had to with­­drew from the race. Lidd­ell also excluded himself from two other relays in which Britain hoped to win gold: 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m, whose finals were also on a Sun­day. I would have been heart broken, had I been the favourite for the gold.

Gold medal run,

Paris Olympics 1924

Instead he concent­rat­ed on the 400m as that race schedule didn’t involve a Sabbath. The mounting excitement as the runners got on their blocks could be felt. Liddell quickly got ahead of the runners and maintained his lead through­­out, winning by 3 ms from the American Fit­ch, getting the gold medal and set­ting a new Olympic record of 47.6 seconds. He desc­rib­ed his race plan as dep­ending on God!

Amazingly he also won a bronze medal for the 200 metres in Paris.

Harold Abrahams was a British team-mate and rival. He must have relaxed a bit when he heard that Eric had decided not to run in the 100 ms – in fact Abrahams won the 100 metres in a new Games record time! Nonetheless the 400m in some way provided the UK’s greatest thrill, given the world record was broken by Eric Lid­d­ell 3 times in 2 days. It was always thought that Liddell might win, but nobody thought Lid­dell capable of the amazing performance he ach­iev­ed in the final. Highlander music celebrated loudly.

400 ms celebration in Paris streets

July 1924

After the Olympic excitement and his science degree, he moved to Tientsin to work as a Christian missionary from 1925, just like his parents. There he remained fit, but unfortunately only played sport occasion­ally.

Let's mention the North Morningside United Presbyterians who built/used the church in Edinburgh. They then built a new, larger, church across the road, for the Congreg­ational Church, until 1928 when this church was demolished and a new one erected. On furl­ough from China, Liddell returned to Edinburgh, studied at Congreg­at­ional College and was liv­ing in a George Square hostel which bel­onged to the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Soc­iety. He attend­ed Morn­ingside Congreg­ational Ch­urch, and also preached at the ch­ur­ch a few times.

After graduating with a divinity degree, Lidd­ell was ordain­ed as a min­ister in June 1932 and married Canadian miss­ion­ary Florence Macken­zie in 1934. Liddell's first job as a missionary was as a teacher at an Anglo-Chinese College for wealthy Chinese students, while the couple had 3 daughters.

In 1937 Eric was sent to Xiaoch­ang, crossing the Japanese army lines, where he joined his brother Rob. By 1941 life in China was becoming so dangerous that the British Gov­ern­ment advised British nationals to leave, so Flor­ence and the children left for Canada. The advan­c­ing Jap­anese army pressed Eric Liddell to move to a rural mission station, dealing with the stream of locals who came to the station for medicine and food. During 1941–3 Eric stayed in Tientsin.

The Union Church Bible Class 

in Tientsin China, 1925

In 1943, the Japanese reached the mission station and Liddell was in­terned in Weishien camp. Aggravated by shortages of food and medical treatment, Liddell developed a brain tumour. Camp internees saw him as a great unifying force and helped ease tensions through his self­less­ness and impart­ial­ity. Prisoners also said that Liddell had turned down the chan­ce to leave the camp as part of a prisoner exchange prog­ramme, giving his place to a pregnant woman. 5 months before liber­at­ion in Feb 1945, Liddell tragically died.

Three modern mentions of Eric Liddell. 1] The much loved British film Chariots of Fire (1981) chronicled the athletic lives of Lid­d­ell and Abrahams. 2] As the modernisat­ion of Edinburgh’s Morn­ingside Congreg­ational Ch­urch dev­elop­ed in the 1980s, the centre was renamed The Eric Liddell Centre in Eric’s honour. And 3] in 2002, a poll voted Liddell as the most popular Scottish sports figure of all time. Thanks to Eric Liddell Centre for images

Read Sally Mag­nus­son­'s The Flying Scotsman: The Eric Liddell Story, 2007.