ERIC. HENRY. LIDDELL,
(1902–1945)
Scottish athlete and missionary
Born in China of missionary parents, Liddell went to school in England and later graduated in science from Edinburgh University. He excelled in sports, representing Scotland on the international rugby field. At the 1924 Paris Olympics, having disqualified himself from the one hundred meters because Christian conviction would not permit him to run a preliminary heat on Sunday, he won the gold medal and achieved a world record in the four hundred meters.
Before that race a note slipped into his hand reminded him of 1 Samuel 2:30: “Them that honour me I will honour.”
Liddell became a prominent member of student teams pledged to actively evangelize central Scotland. His participation undoubtedly brought thousands within sound of the gospel for the first time. In 1925, to the dismay of the athletic world, he returned to China under the London Missionary Society to teach at the Anglo-Chinese Christian College, Tientsin.
Both there and in a Japanese internment camp from 1942, the humility and the
serene testimony of “Scotland’s greatest athlete,” not least in the trying days
before his death from a brain tumor, greatly encouraged his fellow-workers and gave
him a unique outreach to all who heard him.
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