Donald Osborne Finlay, a sporting name familiar to households in the
1930s, was Britain's greatest athlete of the time; a hurdler whose
triumphant exploits graced the sports pages and newsreels week after
week. From a humble family background, he became a double Olympic
medalist, European Champion, and Empire (Commonwealth) Champion; he also
won the AAA 120 yards hurdles an unprecedented seven times in
succession. Reporters ran out of superlatives to describe him. At the
three Olympic Games in which he ran, he captained the British team
twice, including the Berlin Games of 1936 in front of Adolf Hitler. An
all-round sportsman, both track and field events came naturally to him
as did football. He played for the country's top amateur sides and
turned out for Tottenham Hotspur in wartime matches.
All the more remarkable is that Finlay competed at the very highest
levels of international athletics at the same time as pursuing his
demanding career as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot. Joining up as a boy
apprentice in the mid-1920s, he qualified as a pilot before the start of
the Second World War and found himself in the cockpit of a Supermarine
Spitfire, commanding a squadron, during the Battle of Britain. Shot down
and wounded in the Battle, he was soon back in the air and rose through
the ranks to command a fighter wing in Burma, ending the war with
several 'kills' to his name, as well as a Distinguished Flying Cross and
an Air Force Cross to add to the medals won under less lethal
circumstances on the running track. As a commander, his insistence on
strict discipline often led to conflict with his subordinates, but there
is no doubt that his methods got results.
After the war, still serving in the RAF, Don returned to competitive
athletics and was as fast and successful, if not more so, than ever. By
then he was in his 40s, but age was no barrier and several of his
greatest hurdling victories came when others would have been long
retired from the track, against athletes often twenty years his junior.
Don Finlay's life was to end prematurely, and under tragic
circumstances, but his legacy lives on as one of the finest athletes
ever to wear the vest of Great Britain, as well as one of 'The Few'.
