Market & Web Researcher

16th January 1902 saw the birth in China of Eric Liddell, the missionary and athlete often called the “Flying Scotsman”.

Eric may have been born, and indeed died in China, but his real home was Scotland and both his parents, also missionaries, were born in Scotland. Now I have read that Liddell himself considered himself to be Chinese, not through any patriotic way, but because he was a devout Christian and because use, in his own words God made him for China.

That doesn’t mean that he wasn’t also proud to be Scottish, Eric, most well known for his exploits on the running track, also won 7 caps for the Scottish rugby team and was a keen cricketer too.

Eric and his brother were sent to boarding school near London and he later chose Edinburgh University to continue his education in 1921, where he studied Pure Science, and after the Olympics returned there to graduate in 1924. 

Because of his commitment to not work on Sundays, in honour of the Christian Sabbath, Eric Liddell refused to run in an Olympic heat for the 100 meters and was disqualified.  His beliefs also prevented him from competing on the British 4 X 400 meter relay team.  These unavoidable scheduling conflicts were known months in advance, but no amount of pressure could get him to change his mind.  He was able to compete in the 400 meters and the 200 meters, where he won gold and bronze medals.

Liddell’s unwillingness to compromise his beliefs in order to compete for more medals was radical even in 1924, and garnered international attention.  But it was what he did away from the track, the media, and the multitude of adoring fans that makes him truly heroic. Leaving behind fame and the wealth that would certainly have followed his Olympic success, Liddell returned to China in 1925 as a teacher and a missionary, and worked among the poor.  By 1941, the Japanese aggression in China had reached the point that the government advised all British citizens to leave.

Liddell’s wife and three daughters escaped to Canada, but Eric remained to serve the sick and injured in a mission hospital with his brother.  Soon after he was captured by the Japanese and sent to an internment camp. Eyewitnesses reported that in spite of harsh living conditions he continued to be a joyful presence, organizing sports games for the youth in the camp and teaching science classes, encouraging his fellow prisoners to persevere in hope, and “continuing to speak of God’s love and forgiveness.”

In 1945, five months before the camp was liberated, Eric Liddell died. In conjunction with the build-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Chinese government revealed that Eric Liddell had been given the chance to be released from the camp, but chose instead to transfer his pardon to a pregnant woman.  This act of sacrifice had been previously unknown even to Liddell’s family. Eric Liddell was great not for what he won, but for what he was willing to lose, more than medals and fame he could have easily walked away from his life in China, to me this showed his qualities and again to me I think it right we should remember him as a different kind of Braveheart, and someone all Scots should be proud of.