How 1950s immigrant Louis made history as weightlifting superstar
Today marks the start of Black History Month. Nicola Rippon writes about Derby weightlifter Louis Martin, who became an Olympic medallist and was awarded an MBE
LITTLE could 19-year-old Louis Martin have known, as he arrived in Derby from Jamaica in 1955, that he was to become one of Britain’s most successful sportsmen, with two Olympic medals, four world championship medals, four European championships and three Commonwealth titles.
Louis, whose life is celebrated during Black History Month, came to Derby because he already had a friend here. They were part of the Windrush Generation of nearly half a million migrants who, from 1948, arrived in Britain from the Caribbean, invited to take up jobs in a country that faced a severe postwar labour shortage.
Reporting straight to Derby Labour Exchange, Louis found a job and started just two days later.
He quickly enrolled in a gymnasium, determined to continue the weight training he had begun back home in Kingston. It was a decision that was to define his life and take him on his way to a career in which he would become Britain’s greatest ever weightlifter.
He took up bodybuilding and during the late 1950s became a world-class competitor who was selected by the National Amateur Bodybuilding Association for their major national and international events. He won the Mr England title and competed at Mr Universe, earning the nickname “the Ebony Adonis”.
But it was when he turned to competitive weightlifting that Louis began to take the world by storm.
His first major competition was the 1958 Empire Games in Cardiff, at which he represented Jamaica. The following year, now representing Great Britain, he created one of the greatest upsets in the sport’s history when he defeated the 1956 Olympic gold medallist, Arkady Vorobyov of the Soviet Union, to bring home the world championship gold.
By now a popular national figure, Louis was nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
At the 1960 Rome Olympics, he was defeated by Vorobyov but brought home a bronze medal. Four years later, at the Tokyo Games, he won silver by defeating another Soviet, Vladimir Golovanov. He went on to be crowned world champion a further three times – in 1962, 1963 and 1965. Lauded as a hero and loved and respected by those he worked with as an electrician at British Rail, as a black man in post-war Britain, Louis Martin still had to deal with racism. Although he would later say that he felt welcome in the Derby of the 1950s, Louis did admit that he was not allowed to use the bath in his first digs, due to the colour of his skin.
When jobs began to grow scarce, he faced increasing prejudice when some members of society conveniently forgot the vital helping hand migrants had given Britain in her hour of need.
When he married Ann Robinson, a local white girl, their union created quite a stir in a nation not yet used to so-called “mixed marriages”. Even the Derby Telegraph noted their wedding “broke new ground”. It has been said
that their high-profile relationship helped to break down social barriers. However, The Times, in its obituary to Martin, noted that Ann’s father refused to speak to his son-in-law for more than 20 years.
The wedding caused so much interest that the Sunday Times featured the couple in its first colour supplement magazine. They even sent along the world-famous photographer Lord Snowdon, then married to Princess Margaret, to take photos of the couple in their Derby home.
Back in competition, Louis went on to win three consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medals, in 1962, 1966 and 1970 – the final achievement of his extraordinary career.
But Louis had much more to offer. Already a role model for many, he spent 30 years coaching young weightlifters, investing much of his own time, expertise, and money in them.
Determined that his gym would be available to all, even those with little money to spend, he made no membership charge, or entrance fee. Members were encouraged to drop some money into a tin near the door, as and when they could afford it.
He was elected president of British Weightlifting, and it was in this role that in 2012, at the age of 75, he was chosen to carry the Olympic flame during its relay ahead of the London Games, some 46 years after he had carried the English flag at the Commonwealth Games.
In 1965, he was awarded the MBE for his services to weightlifting. He was invited to have lunch with the Queen, and to attend her garden parties, as well as having his effigy in Madame Tussaud’s.
When he retired in 1970, after winning his third Commonwealth title, he said: “I know that I can no longer win world titles. When I can’t win, I have no wish to compete.”
His run for Derby Borough Council in 1971, for the Conservative Party, has been credited for opening those doors to black and Asian candidates across the city. He closed his gym in 2005 to take care of Ann, who died in 2007.
Louis Martin died in 2015, aged 78, from the industrial disease mesothelioma.
His name was one of the first selected for Derby’s Walk of Fame – a sign not only of his extraordinary achievements to his sport and his community, but also an acknowledgement of the respect, admiration, and fondness with which this much-loved Derbeian is still