Olympician Eric Liddell dies in interment

February 21 1945 — Eric Henry Liddell, whose 1924 Olympic Games journey inspired the Oscar-winning 1981 film “Chariots of Fire”, dies of a brain tumour in a Japanese civilian internment camp in China. He was born in Tientsin, China, to Scottish missionaries the Reverend James and Mary Liddell on January 16 1902. His family returned to Scotland when he was five. In 1920 he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to study Pure Science. He excelled as a sprinter and played rugby for Scotland. The devout Christian refused to run in the Paris Olympics 100m heats on Sunday July 6 1924. He opted out of his best event and instead trained for the 400m. He won the 200m bronze on July 8. On Friday July 11, he won the 400m from the outside lane (pictured) in a world and Olympic record 47.6s. He graduated with a BSc, then moved to Northern China as a missionary from 1925 to 1943, first as a teacher in Tianjin where he married Canadian Florence Mackenzie (they had three daughters) in 1934. He was ordained as a Congregational Union of Scotland minister in 1932. In 1941 life in China became very dangerous because of Japanese aggression. His family left for Canada when he accepted a position in Xiaozhang, an extremely poor area. Already ravaged in the civil wars, it had become a very treacherous battleground with the invading Japanese. After this mission station was taken over by the Japanese, Liddell returned to Tianjin. He was interned at the Weihsien Internment Camp in 1943. Some of China’s Olympic literature lists Liddell as the country’s first Olympic champion.