40 Facts About Eric Liddell

Eric Henry Liddell was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player and Christian missionary.

At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Liddell refused to run in the heats for his favoured 100 metres because they were held on a Sunday.

Eric Liddell became ordained as a Congregational minister in 1932 and regularly taught bible classes at Morningside Congregational Church, Edinburgh.

Eric Liddell returned to China in 1925 and served as a missionary teacher.

Eric Liddell was born 16 January 1902, in Tientsin, China, the second son of the Reverend and Mrs James Dunlop Eric Liddell, Scottish missionaries with the London Missionary Society.

Eric Liddell went to school in China until the age of five.

At Eltham, Eric Liddell was an outstanding athlete, earning the Blackheath Cup as the best athlete of his year, and playing for the First XI and the First XV by the age of 15, later becoming captain of both the cricket and rugby union teams.

In 1920 Eric Liddell joined his brother Robert at the University of Edinburgh to study Pure Science.

Eric Liddell ran in the 100-yard and 220-yard races for the university, and played rugby for the University Club.

Eric Liddell played for Edinburgh District in the inter-city matches against Glasgow District of 3 December 1921 and 2 December 1922, from which he gained a place in the backline of a strong Scotland national rugby union team.

Eric Liddell graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree after the 1924 Summer Olympics in 1924.

Eric Liddell was challenged all the way down the home straight but held on to take the win.

Eric Liddell broke the Olympic and world records with a time of 47.6 seconds.

Eric Liddell returned to Scotland only twice, in 1932 and again in 1939.

Eric Liddell supported the school's mission and began teaching mathematics and science at the school in 1925.

Eric Liddell used his athletic experience to train boys in a number of different sports.

Eric Liddell once quarreled with the headmaster to ask for more subsidies for students not from wealthy families.

Eric Liddell lived at 38 Chongqing Dao in Tianjin, where a plaque commemorates his residence.

Eric Liddell courted his future wife by taking her for lunch to the Kiesling restaurant, which is still open in Tianjin.

The school where Eric Liddell taught is still in use today.

One of his daughters visited Tianjin in 1991 and presented the headmaster of the school with one of the medals that Eric Liddell had won for athletics.

Florence and the children left for Canada to stay with her family when Eric Liddell accepted a position at a rural mission station in Xiaozhang, which served the poor.

Eric Liddell joined his brother, Rob, who was a doctor there.

Eric Liddell arrived at the station in time to relieve his brother, who was ill and needing to go on furlough.

Eric Liddell became a leader and organiser at the camp, but food, medicine, and other supplies were scarce.

Eric Liddell was overflowing with good humour and love for life, and with enthusiasm and charm.

Eric Liddell died on 21 February 1945, five months before liberation.

Thomson: Eric Liddell, The Making of an Athlete and the Training of a Missionary.

In 2002, when the first inductees were inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame, Eric Liddell topped the public vote for the most popular sporting hero Scotland had ever produced.

Eric Liddell was inducted into the Scottish Rugby Hall of Fame in January 2022, on the centenary of his first international cap.

In 2008, just before the Beijing Olympics, Chinese authorities claimed that Eric Liddell had refused an opportunity to leave the camp, and instead gave his place to a pregnant woman.

Eric Liddell was buried in the garden behind the Japanese officers' quarters, his grave marked by a small wooden cross.

The Eric Liddell Centre was set up in Edinburgh in 1980 to honour Liddell's beliefs in community service whilst he lived and studied in Edinburgh.

The award ceremony took place in the same hall from which Eric Liddell graduated in 1924.

The film portrays Eric Liddell as finding out that one of the heats was to be held on a Sunday as he boards the boat that will take the British Olympic team across the English Channel to Paris.

In reality, the schedule and Eric Liddell's decision were both known several months in advance, though his refusal to participate remains significant.

Eric Liddell was knocked to the ground several strides into the race.

Eric Liddell hesitated, got up and pursued his opponents, 20 yards ahead.

Eric Liddell caught the leaders shortly before the finish line and collapsed after crossing the tape.

At an athletics championship in Glasgow, a visitor watching the 440-yard final, in which Eric Liddell was a long way behind the leaders at the start of the last lap, remarked to a Glasgow native that Eric Liddell would be hard put to win the race.