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

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.

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.

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.