Olympian’s story back in the limelight
ATHLETE’S MEDALS AND MEMENTOS ALL UP FOR AUCTION
THE son of a Tyneside shipyard worker, athlete Alec Burns went on to represent Britain at two Olympic Games.
To take part in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics he undertook a 10-day ship and train journey, while at the 1936 Berlin Games he met Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering.
Now hundreds of items which tell the story of his amateur athletics achievements are to be sold next week.
From the Los Angeles Olympics they include Alec’s straw hat from the opening ceremony, photographs, athlete’s badge and competitors medal.
And from Berlin a Great Britain running vest and cap, a plaque signed by members of the British team, and German books on the Games and a German Olympics tie.
The archive also includes item such as medals, running gear, souvenir programmes and pictures from British Empire Games, Amateur Athletics Association championships and international and northern crosscountry championships and keepsakes from Elswick Harriers, where Alec was a member.
The sale also features notes made by Alec on his Los Angeles and Berlin experiences and the programme for a supper held at the Oxford Galleries in Newcastle on September 20, 1932 to honour his achievements.
The archive, which will be auctioned at Anderson and Garland’s Newcastle salerooms on Tuesday, has been placed for sale by Frank Watson, former secretary of Elswick Harriers.
He said: “Rather than see it left in a loft, I would like to see the collection go somewhere where it will be valued and Alec’s achievements recognised.
“He was a remarkable man.”
Alec’s boyhood home was Scotswood Road in Newcastle where he was born in 1907, but he later settled in Wingrove Road in Fenham.
He ran with Elswick Harriers from 1923 until the 1950s. A regular training run was from the city centre to the top of Byker Bank and back again.
As well as his two Olympic Games, Alec was AAA four-mile champion and England cross country team captain. He represented England in the International Cross Country Championships six times
Alec was one of only 20 British athletes to go to Los Angeles as numbers were restricted because of the 1930s Depression.
In his notes, Alec describes the five-
day ocean crossing to Quebec, when his pre-Olympic training amounted to running around the liner’s deck.
“Stayed in the Mount Royal Hotel in Quebec, then the biggest hotel in the British Empire, “he wrote.
A five-day Pacific railway journey followed to Los Angeles, with Alec noting the “wonderful views” of the Rockies, “Chicago – Al Capone’s town” and a Golden Gate sunset at San Francisco.
He added he found the “crickets noise at night time disturbing” in Los Angeles.
After only one day’s rest, Alec won his 5,000 metres heat despite sweltering temperatures.
In the final, he finished seventh but said: “The satisfaction I had was I ran faster than ever I had in my life.”
At the Berlin Olympics he finished fifth in the 10,000 metres, only 25 yards behind the winner.
He met Hitler and Goering at a reception for the athletes, speaking to them through an interpreter.
He noted: “Hitler had a totally expressionless face.”
He ran his last race in 1972 when he competed in the Newcastle to Gateshead race to raise funds for the 1972 Olympics.
Alec, who died in 2003, summed up his philosophy: “I was always taught that the proper thing was to be modest, and the best man wins.”