Ian Buchanan (Publicist)

Ian Buchanan (born January 28, 1932 in Sheffield , Yorkshire , † April 6, 2008 in Aylsham , Norfolk ) was a British sports historian and publicist .

Ian Buchanan took part in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London as a spectator . During this time he met Ross and Norris McWhirter , who founded the Guinness Book of Records in 1954 . Ian Buchanan worked for them on sports records, especially for athletics. During this time, Buchanan became a member of ATFS, the Association of Track and Field Statistics, and NUTS, the National Union of Track Statisticians.

In 1957 he published the British Athletics Record Book together with the McWhirter brothers , and in 1961 he published his first book, the Encyclopædia of British Athletics Records , in which, among other things, he published all British international athletics competitions for the first time with individual results up to 1960.

In the 1970s he began working with the Olympic historian Erich Kamper , who in turn introduced him to Bill Mallon . Together with Mallon he published Quest for Gold in 1984 , the book contains the short résumés of all US Olympic medalists. In 1991 Buchanan's book British Olympians was published , which contains the short résumés of all British Olympic champions. In 1993, Mallon and Buchanan were co-authors of the Guinness International Who's Who of Sport, edited by Peter Matthews . In 1995 he wrote All-Time Greats of British and Irish Sport with Matthews . His last books dealt with the early history of British athletics. In 1991 Buchanan was the founding chairman of the International Society of Olympic Historians .

In the civilian profession, Buchanan was a director at a major UK reinsurance company for which he worked in Hong Kong for twenty years before returning to England in 1990.

Works (selection)

• Encyclopaedia of British Athletics Records. 1961.
• Quest for Gold. Leisure Press New York City 1984 ISBN 0-88011-217-4 (with Bill Mallon).
• British Olympians. Guinness Publisher Enfield 1991 ISBN 0-85112-952-8 .
• The Guinness International Who's Who of Sport . Guinness Verlag Enfield 1993 ISBN 0-85112-980-3 (together with Peter Matthews and Bill Mallon).
• All-Time Greats of British and Irish Sport . Guinness Verlag Enfield 1995 ISBN 0-85112-678-2 (together with Peter Matthews).
• Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement . Scarecrow Press 1996 ISBN 0-81083-062-0 (with Bill Mallon).

literature

• Peter Matthews (Ed.): Athletics 2009. SportsBooks, Cheltenham 2009, ISBN 978-1-899807-78-9 (obituary page 100f.).

Web links

• Obituary by Bill Mallon (English)
• Ian Buchanan on bookfinder (contains other Ian Buchanans, but the Olympic books are by the author described in this article)