Liddell, Eric Henry, 1902-1945 (Olympic Athlete and Missionary)

Dates

• Existence: 1902 - 1945

Biography

Eric Henry Liddell, Olympic runner and missionary, was born in 1902 in China, the son of Scottish missionaries. He was educated in Blackheath and Eltham, London, then studied at Edinburgh University where he was a rugby blue and gained his B.Sc. in 1924. He was outstanding as a runner and was selected for the British team in the Paris Olympics of 1924. He refused to run in the heats for the 100 meters as they were held on a Sunday and instead entered the 400 meters which he won in a world record time. Liddell's story was later made into the film Chariots of Fire. He went on to study at the Scottish Congregational College and in 1925 went to China as a missionary with the London Missionary Society. He began by teaching science at the Anglo-Chinese College in Tientsin then moved to rural Siochang where he worked despite the difficult conditions caused by poverty and war. He married Florence Mackenzie in March 1934 in Tientsin but he last saw his wife and children in 1940 when, for safety, they went to Canada to live with family. Liddell was interned by the Japanese in 1943 in Weihsien prison camp, Shantung where he died of a brain tumour in 1945. His death was widely mourned not least in the camp itself where he had become a teacher, friend and guide to scores of imprisoned children.

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