Eric Liddell

He ran like the wind
in rugger and on track.
Soon a teacher so kind
under enemy attack.
He wouldn’t compete on Sunday
– the Day of the Lord,
but when in internment the youngsters
were fractious and bored
it’s thought that he umpired their Sunday games
(they knew he was fair!)
to occupy their energies, stem fighting and discord
(for not then competition for personal glory,
but helping others – still keeping the day holy).
Long remembered by many there for his unstinting support,
his faith, encouragement,
living by the scriptures he taught.
The youngsters there loved him, called him, ‘Uncle Eric’,
as he helped their perseverance with activities
and good humour,
but he never saw his own children again,,
died, as the war ended, exhausted
and an undiagnosed brain tumour.
Not seen ascending in chariots of fire like Elijah,
but welcomed by his Lord and Saviour after the last battle.
In Scotland, Paris and China, honoured,
and well-remembered:
gave of his best through every test.

Eric Liddell competed in the Paris Olympics in 1924 not in his best 100m as the heats for that were put on for the Sunday, but he  won a bronze in the 200m and unexpectedly a gold and set a new world record in the 400m. He then went to work in China (where he’d been born and lived as a youngster) as a science teacher and sports coach in a Mission School, but later worked in a more dangerous part of the country, his family staying behind. As the war with Japan made the situation increasingly dangerous, his family returned to Canada. In 1943 he and many other foreigners were interned.