1945
The death of Eric Liddell
Eric Liddell (1902-45) was a Scottish athlete and missionary who won fame at the 1924 Olympics and who would be immortalized in the film Chariots of Fire.
Liddell was born in China to missionary parents and lived in that country until he was 5 when he was sent back to Britain to go to school. At his public school and the University of Edinburgh he excelled as an athlete and played international rugby for Scotland. Selected for the British track team for the Paris Olympics of 1924, he decided that he could not participate in 100 metre sprint in which he was a favourite because the heats were run on the Sabbath Day. Instead he competed in the 200 and 400 metre races. Before the latter, a distance at which he had never done particularly well, a member of the American team’s support staff slipped him a note with a quotation from I Samuel 2:30: “Those who honor me I will honor.” Liddell drew the difficult outside lane which meant that for the first part of the race he was unable to see the pace of his competition so he set off at a blistering pace and managed to hang on for the gold medal. The time he set was an Olympic and world record. In the same Games he won a bronze in the 200 metres. These medals came despite an awkward running style that was much mocked.
In 1925 he left for the mission field of China and served as a teacher and ordained minister there until his death, returning to Britain for furlough only rarely. He married the daughter of a Canadian missionary and their family produced three daughters. The invasion of China by Japan forced the missionaries to either flee and abandon their flocks or to move them to areas of greater safety. Liddell sent his wife and children to Canada but remained in China. When his mission was overrun by the Japanese, he was interned in a prison camp. His life there seems also to have been one of exemplary sacrifice and service. Liddell refused to be freed in a prisoner exchange and gave his place to a pregnant woman. He died there in 1945 of a brain tumour.