Leon Lumsdaine

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John "Jack" Leon Sydney Lumsdaine DFC (born January 31, 1923 in Shanghai , Republic of China , † March 29, 1966 near Sainte-Lucie-de-Doncaster , Québec , Canada ) was a British modern pentathlon .

life and career

Lumsdaine was born to Arthur Henry Vere Lumsdaine and Gladys Valentine, nee Ghys. He spent his youth in Shanghai, where he began playing rugby in 1940 . But the following year he joined the Royal Air Force to represent the United Kingdom in World War II , although he had never been to Great Britain before. During the war he rose to the rank of flight lieutenant and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross .

After the war, Lumsdaine stayed with the Royal Air Force. When the ranks of British officers were looking for potential members for the British team in the modern pentathlon at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki , the attention fell on the 1.90 meter tall model athlete Lumsdaine. After he had learned to fencing with the foil in a total of 12 training units , he became part of the team.

In Helsinki Lumsdaine took 15th place out of 51 participants in the individual competition. His strongest discipline was horse riding, where he was able to achieve seventh place, and the weakest was 36th in running. In the team competition he achieved 10th place together with John Hewitt and Jervis Percy .

Lumsdaine, considered the best British modern pentathlon of 1949-1954, died on the ice of a frozen lake when he was late in ejecting the seat during a test flight in a Canadair CL-41 Tutor for the Royal Canadian Air Force . He was married and had three children.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Leon Lumsdaine in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
  2. ↑ a b c d biography on treatyportsport.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed August 25, 2015@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.treatyportsport.com  
  3. ↑ a b c Fencing Lessons article on myshanghaifilm.com from August 8, 2012, accessed on August 25, 2015
  4. ↑ Portrait on veterans.gc.ca accessed on August 25, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Lumsdaine, Leon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lumsdaine, Jack; Lumsdaine, John Leon Sydney (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British modern pentathlon
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Shanghai , Republic of China
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 1966
Place of death near Sainte-Lucie-de-Doncaster , Québec , Canada