Anniesland’s’ Forgotten Olympians

This is the time of year for nostalgia (which of course is not what it used to be)

When you walk through the stand at Anniesland although modern in design and construction you are aware of the past .The walls display the history of Glasgow High School F.P.and Anniesland covering many sports and famous competitors of previous eras all the way to modern times with four times Olympic swimmer Alison Sheppard

Tom Riddell merits a display to himself.Although not an Olympian he was an extraordinary athlete and would have gone to the 1932 Games in Los Angeles had he been able to take time off work(different attitudes back then).He was the Scottish Mile Champion on eight occasions and represented Britain against Germany in 1935
He set a British All Comers record for the 1 Mile of 4m 12sec in 1932.He later became a War hero .He could not accept the advent of professionalism coming into athletics and handed back his honorary membership of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association in protest . Tom also played rugby for Glasgow H.S.F.P and Cork Constitution

However there does seem to be two omissions from the ranks of High School’s finest and these ommisions were two Olympians

The first being James Stark born 1885 and a pupil at Glasgow High School.In 1904 he won the Scottish 100yds title and in the following year won both the 100yds and 220 yds and finished 2nd in the British 100yds.
In 1908 he regained the 100yds title beating the Wyndham Halswelle who won gold over 400 metres at the 1908 Olympics.Halswelle won the final by a walkover after the Americans were disqualified for blocking and refused to rerun the race
In 1908 Stark represented G.B over 100 and 200 metres at the Olympics which were held in London at the White City

Halswelle himself was a great athlete He was an officer with the Highland Light Infantry stationed at Maryhill Barracks and had seen service in the Boer War. In 1908 he set a British record for 440 yards of 48.4 s at the St John’s Young Mens’ Catholic Union Sports which were held at Ibrox!!!
He ran his last race at the Rangers Sports in 1908 and then retired from athletics
Commanding his troops at the Battle of Neuve Chappelle in March 1915 he was shot and wounded by a sniper. After receiving treatment in the field he heroically returned to his post only to be shot through the head by the same sniper


Contemporary with Stark was Robert Campbell Duncan born 1881 who like Stark was a former pupil of Glasgow High School. Although he was several times Scottish Sprint Champion The Scoto-Irish International was his happy hunting ground for he won the 220yds on four occasions. In addition Duncan still holds the distinction of being the only Scottish sprinter to date to represent G.B. in both 100 metres and 200 metres at two Olympics (London 1908 and Stockholm 1912)

During the same period a Glasgow Academical by the name of Robert Stronach (born in Partick in1882) was also a remarkable athlete.A double internationalist he also played flanker for Scotland at Rugby
From 1900 onwards he dominated Scottish hurdling.From 1900 to 1907 he won the 120 yds Hurdles on six occasions similarly the Scoto-Irish match..He also dominated south of the border by winning the British title on three occasions.In 1904 he recorded 16.0 for the 120yds Hurdles the same time that won the Olympic Gold Medal in St Louis.He recorded a Scottish record at Ibrox in 1905 of 15.8 which stood for forty three years.It should be remembered that he did this on grass and having to negotiate solid wooden hurdles that if you hit them you came down not the hurdle---different to the light weight modern version that Mr“Strictly Come Dancing”Colin Jackson performed over

Pre dating all of the above was Tom Connell who played rugby for West of Scotland and was a founding father of Glasgow H.S.F.P in 1884..Tom had a unique place in the history of Scottish Athletics.
In 1882 at the Kilmarnock F.C Sports held at Rugby Park he ran 51.2s for 440 yds which was regarded as a Scottish Record.However despite the track measurement being confirmed there was apparently some doubt about the scratch mark(records could be set in handicap races at that time) and the record was not ratified.This led the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association to establish guidelines for record setting and ratification

This article was originally posted on 24-Dec-2005, 18:23 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 24-Dec-2005, 18:38.