Charles Burnell

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Olympic Games 1908: Leander Club eighth wins his preliminary run against Hungary

Charles Desborough Burnell , OBE , (born January 13, 1876 in Beckenham , Greater London , † October 3, 1969 in Blewbury , Oxfordshire ) was a British rower and Olympic champion in eight .

Burnell was a member of the Leander Club . He received his education at Eton and then at Magdalen College , Oxford. From 1895 to 1898, as a member of the Oxford crew, he won the Boat Race four times against the eighth from Cambridge. At the Henley Royal Regatta he won the eighth competition from 1898 to 1901 and the four-man competition from 1898 to 1900 . At the 1908 Olympic regatta held in Henley , Burnell won the final with the eighth of the Leander Club against the Belgian large boat.

During the First World War Burnell was a captain in the London Rifle Brigade . Towards the end of the war he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order . After the war, he returned to his family's stockbroking company. He was Chairman of the Rural District Council in Wokingham for 35 years and was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1954 for his volunteer work in Berkshire .

Both his son Richard Burnell (1939) and his grandson Peter (1962) took part in the Boat Race once. Richard Burnell won an Olympic gold medal in a double scull in 1948 on the same regatta course as his father in 1908.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Burnell, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burnell, Charles Desborough (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British rower
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Beckenham , Greater London
DATE OF DEATH 3rd October 1969
Place of death Blewbury , Oxfordshire