Posted 23-05-03
ARTHUR WHITEHEAD 1913 - 2003
There was an eerie silence around the Lauriston Cottage courtyard on the fine spring evening of Friday May 2 and a notice displayed in the changing room explained why. It was an announcement simply informing 'That Arthur Whitehead (a long standing member of both Belgrave Harriers and Hercules Wimbledon AC), had died in a Kendal hospital on April 24th just two weeks after his 90th birthday. He suffered a severe stroke a month ago and had been in a coma ever since.'
There was an addendum saying 'that it was Arthur's express wish that his death should not be announced until after his cremation which took place today, May 2nd'. That was Arthur's style. Always having the last word in the matter.
"He had a good innings," was an often-said reaction to the news. It may be a cricketing expression but it is the world of athletics that is all the poorer for his passing. Born in Hindhead, Surrey in 1913 it was as a teenager at Sedbergh School situated in the then Yorkshire fells that his love of running developed. Boys at the school regularly took part in 10-mile runs or more as part of their training for the school's all-important rugby fixtures.
On leaving school Arthur, now in Wimbledon, studied law to qualify as a solicitor in 1937 but two years later on the outbreak of war he was commissioned in the Black Watch regiment. One of his contemporaries in his unit was Tommy Robertson, who was later to play a key role in the formation of Wimbledon Athletic Club. During preparations for the 'second front' Arthur honed the Unit athletics' team to victory in the Divisional Championships.
Then came D Day when his unit came under heavy fire resulting in many casualties and unfortunately Arthur, the second-in-command, was one of them. Struck by flak, which punctured one lung, he laid on the beach for eight hours while tanks roared past and the deadly cross-fire raged unabated around him. One arm was virtually torn away and there seemed little hope for his one remaining lung. Lauriston legend has it that as the stretcher bearers lifted him Arthur calmly said, "Er, don't forget my arm, gentleman."
With only one lung and one useable arm, Arthur was seemingly destined for a lengthy spell in hospital but his contempt for illness or injury proved otherwise. Within three months he was out and convalescing. Later, in the 1960s, medical specialists gleaned from him as much as possible on his amazing recovery from injuries that normally incapacitates car crash victims for life.
In 1945, Arthur moved into Lauriston Cottage, which dates back to 1668, a building that was previously the stabling quarters of the adjacent Lauriston House - formerly the residence of William Wilberforce - where his mother Lady Fell resided. Then came a fateful - for athletics that is - Saturday morning in the autumn of that year when Harry Parker and a group of fellow Belgrave Harriers met on the common opposite the cottage. Arthur introduced himself and enquired about the possibility of joining the group and was immediately made warmly welcome.
In his early days Arthur used to take part in five-mile runs with 1908 Olympic gold medallist Joe Deakin of Herne Hill Harriers and Surrey AC. Together with his early morning swims in the Queensmere pond on the common these activities laid a solid foundation for fitness.
"I was then promoted to the 'slow' pack led by George Still," Arthur was to admit, " and by 1947 I joined the 'medium' pack with 'Champ' Smith leading the way." "Before long I invited the runners to change and bath at the Cottage on the evenings Belgrave Hall was closed."
"It was all very primitive but we packed into my little sitting-room upstairs, washed in 'black' water in my bath and enjoyed tea and plum cake afterwards. And we talked!" Soon Arthur was competing in long distance road races for the Harriers alongside the likes of Arthur Penstone and Dennis Brickwood and by 1953 he had won a Belgrave honours badge for his performance in the AAA marathon of that year - a race that saw Jim Peters set a world record of 2:18:42. Later followed a successful completion of the London to Brighton (15th in 6h 44m) but although still training and swimming regularly he shortly decided to retire from active competition. "I was mercifully released from racing," he confessed.
That wasn't the end of Arthur's involvements with athletics. In 1952 he had inaugurated the now much missed Belgrave 20-mile road race and in 1954 the Lauriston Christmas morning paarlauf through the suggestion of Charlie Smart, of Belgrave who had brought back the idea from Germany.
Arthur was also an interested party at the meeting in 1953 at Wimbledon Town Hall that witnessed the founding of Wimbledon Athletic Club and was also much involved in the founding of the Road Runners Club alongside Ernest Neville. For 12 years the newsletters of the RRC were typed by Arthur and printed at the Cottage on a second hand duplicator that had been picked up by Arthur Penstone. They were posted in nearby pillar boxes and as the club grew so did the scale of the operation. Complaints were received from the Post Office as the boxes became jammed with newsletters.
It was around this time that Joe Brett, then cross country secretary of Wimbledon AC (A merger with Hercules AC took place in 1967) asked Arthur if the club could make use of the Cottage for racing and training and fifty years later the club are still able, thanks to the hospitality of Lauriston Runners Club, taking advantage of what is arguably the most ideal facility in the land for the sport we all love.
Arthur was very much an individualist: group decisions from committees didn't appeal to him one little bit and he soon began to concern himself solely with matters at Lauriston where the numbers grew to such an extent that he formed Lauriston Runners Club. The club crest - which is in fact the family crest of the founder - is a stag's head, which Arthur at the time admitted, "Was appropriate for a club that runs so much in Richmond Park." The motto reads 'Dura Virum Nutrix' meaning 'The Hard Nurse of Man', "or as," Arthur added, "Joe MacDonald - a much loved early member - might say, run your eyeballs out mate!"
The club, although affiliated to Surrey County AA, is not competitive in the sense that it takes part in leagues or open races but being based at such a location it attracted numerous runners who became members on a second-claim basis including many an international. 1980 Olympic 800m champion Steve Ovett, a regular visitor was made an honorary member.
Among others who had trained from the Cottage were 1972 Olympic marathon winner Frank Shorter, 1966 European marathon champion Jim Hogan, former marathon world record holder Derek Clayton, five time world cross country champion John Ngugi, former 10,000m world record holders Gordon Pirie and Dave Bedford and Andrew Lloyd 1990 Commonwealth 5000m champion. Talk about inspirational!
Such inspiration drove Dave Clarke of Hercules Wimbledon to three times becoming National cross-country champion and competing in 11 World Championships after joining Lauriston as young lad and teaming up with his coach John Sullivan.
Sullivan, in fact, had a formidable group, often referred to as the A Squad, operating out of Lauriston with the likes of Clarke, Commonwealth 1500m silver medallist John Gladwin, and British 800m champion Nick Smith leading the way.
A little over a decade previously such was the depth of talent, both in 1967 and 1971 the Surrey teams that won the Inter-Counties cross-country championship were solely composed of athletes belonging to Lauriston Runners Club.
One of those athletes was John Roberts, who as well as still training from the Cottage on a daily basis is also the long standing club treasurer.
It was also during this period that Hercules Wimbledon AC enjoyed their greatest successes over country and road. No less than seven consecutive Surrey cross-country championships, two Southern Road Relay championships, a Southern Counties cross-country championship and a second and third in the National cross-country came the club's way. At the heart of the team were those such as Bob and Dave Holt, Mike Beevor and Mike Fuller, all regular trainers from the Cottage. As Dave, a 1972 Olympian, recently said, "Bob and I owed much of our success in the sport to Arthur's benevolence." A sentiment that many an HW athlete could echo.
Over the years, it was a regular practice of Arthur to organise long weekends or weeks in the Yorkshire and Lakeland fells. Daily outings (or rounds as Arthur described them) of 20-30 miles over the tough terrain, were the plan. Arthur was in his element in the hills with extraordinary strong legs and breathtaking speed downhill. He was particularly pleased with one 'round' consisting of a route around the three of the major mountains of the lakes - Scafel Pike, Helvellyn and Skiddaw - a distance in excess of 50 miles covered by a small group in 1959.
During these years, Arthur also oversaw extensive alterations to the running facilities with the result that the club now enjoys the use of a large shower room, a spacious changing room, a kitchen, ample toilet requirements, a weight room and a spare room that stocks a complete collection of Athletics Weekly, a boon to athletic researchers.
The December 25, 1971 issue of Athletics Weekly, alongside a lengthy tribute to Arthur by Clive Shippen, published a lengthy letter from Ray O'Donoghue - still a regular attendee - that perhaps encapsulated what Lauriston was about in those days.
'Any runner who attends Lauriston often enough must get fit. The whole atmosphere is ideal for training. Even on the bleakest of nights there is always someone training from there. It is certainly much easier to get out with a pack than it is to go out on your own. I suppose what I have always found most enjoyable than the actual training is the sort of Crazy Gang jokes afterwards in the dressing room. Oh yes as well as having to be fit to train at Lauriston you have to have a sense of humour and a thick skin.'
Though often critical of veterans' class athletics in 1978 Arthur won, in his first serious competition for 18 years, the National M65 cross-country championship.
The story goes, and as with most Lauriston tales it becomes embellished as the years pass, local reporter Tom Pollak was interviewing him at the Cottage when a telegram arrived for the great man. It read: CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SUCCESS ARTHUR stop HOPE YOU ARE NOT TALKING TO THE PRESS stop STEVE OVETT.
"This interview is now concluded," Arthur announced, folding the note and turning for the privacy of his study.
Some years ago Arthur moved north to the village of Sedbergh (now part of Cumbria) close to the surroundings of his fondly remembered schooldays and ran or walked as a free spirit over his beloved fells up to the final year of his long and much appreciated life. The number of athletes now training from Lauriston may be a far cry from those heady days and the A Squad of today is of the older variety but the banter and the enthusiasm is as keen as ever.
There is no longer plum cake on offer but the club secretary Dave Beard runs a 'tight ship' and ensures that basics such as tea, biscuits and soap are in plentiful supply. Yes Arthur, it is not only Hercules Wimbledon AC, Belgrave Harriers and Surrey County AA that have much to thank you for in playing such a vital role not only in their successes but also for supplying such enduring memories for all those who have passed through the portals of Lauriston Cottage. Some man. Some legacy.
Pete Mulholland
Acknowledgements are due to Clive Shippen and Dave Cocksedge for the use of previously published material plus additional information from Charlie Dabbs.
 |
Top | Home | |