
Jon Baddeley
Specialist Consultant Collectors, Science & Marine
This auction has ended. View lot details




Sold for £1,500 inc. premium
Our Sporting Memorabilia specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialist
Specialist Consultant Collectors, Science & Marine
THE GOLD MEDAL DIPLOMA FOR "THE GREATEST RACE EVER RUN". Arnold Nugent Strode Strode-Jackson CBE DSO (1891–1972) was an exceptional athlete. He rowed and played football and hockey for Brasenose College, won the mile race for Oxford against Cambridge three times, and became President of the Oxford University Athletic Club. In 1912, while still an undergraduate, he was not selected for the Great Britain team, but nonetheless interrupted a fishing holiday in Norway to travel to the Games in Stockholm and compete as a private entry. The 1500 metres was expected to be won by one of several American favourites, but Strode-Jackson came from behind on the last lap (despite having to run wide when three of the Americans sought to block him by running abreast) and won gold in an Olympic record time of 3:56.8. He remains the youngest ever Olympic 1500m gold medalist.
During World War I, Strode-Jackson became the youngest ever British Army Brigadier-General, and was amongst the most highly decorated of British officers. Sadly his sporting career ended when he was wounded three times and left permanently lame. He went on to be a member of the Olympic Council and worked in industry in the United States for many years, returning to Oxford to live in the 1960s.
Provenance: Purchased by the current owner's brother, c.1995, from his brother's close friend, the son and only child of Arnold Nugent Strode Strode-Jackson.