Michael Lapage

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Michael Clement Lapage (born November 15, 1923 in Shaftesbury , Dorset , † July 20, 2018 ) was a British rower, pilot and missionary. He took part in the 1948 Olympic Games , where he won the silver medal with the British eighth .

Life

Lapage was the son of a vicar . He attended school in Monkton Cobe , a village south of Bath . From 1940 to 1942 he was a member of the school's rowing team (figure eight). Lapage later received a place in geography at Selwyn College , part of the University of Cambridge . His wish to join the university's rowing team (Light Blue Boat) , he was initially unable to realize, as he volunteered as a pilot for the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) in the course of the Second World War in 1942 .

After military training, Lapage was assigned to the 807 Naval Air Squadron in 1944. There he flew a Seafire , with which he took part in reconnaissance and low-level missions of the Allies in southern France from the escort aircraft carrier HMS Hunter . In 1945 he moved to the 800 Naval Air Squadron. There he flew from HMS Emperor with a Grumman Hellcat in East Asia.

In 1946 Lapage returned to Selwyn College. Because he had missed the first semester, he could no longer get into the university's rowing team. It took two years for him to establish himself there. In 1948 he won the traditional Boat Race against the Oxford University team with the Cambridge eighth (in seventh position) .

The rowing competitions of the 1948 Olympic Games took place on the Thames near Henley-on-Thames . The British eight was put together just before the Games. In addition to Michael Lapage, the team included Christopher Barton , Guy Richardson , Ernest Bircher , Paul Massey , Charles Lloyd , David Meyrick , Alfred Mellows and Jack Dearlove . After beating the Canadians in the semifinals, they faced Norway and the USA in the final. The British team led the first 500 meters before they were overtaken by the US eighth, who finally won with a time of 5: 56.7 minutes. Great Britain followed with 6: 06.9 and Norway with 6: 10.3 min. Lapage later speculated as to whether the small rations of meat allowed to the British rowers had cost them victory. The Americans, on the other hand, regularly received imported meat, which is important for building muscle. Overall, he rated the games as "very amateur and pleasant".

After the Olympics, Lapage continued his studies. He then worked as a teacher at Winchester College . He trained the 1st eighth of the local rowing team and led the team to victories at the Schools' Head of the River Race and Princess Elizabeth Cup in Henley.

In 1950 Lapage took part in the rowing competitions of the British Empire Games in New Zealand , where he won the bronze medal with the British eighth.

Lapage married the missionary daughter Margaret Butcher († 1995) in 1953. For various reasons such as his Protestant upbringing and an experience in the war in which he was almost shot down, Lapages decided to become a missionary himself. In the late 1950s he went to Kenya, where the Mau Mau War was taking place at that time . There he worked as a school inspector. In 1961 he was ordained by Obadiah Kariuki, the first Anglican bishop of the Diocese of Mount Kenya.

In 1972 Lapage returned to England, where he worked as an auxiliary chaplain at Bedford School. He then stayed for three years for the Intercontinental Church Society in Lyon, France . He then became vicar in Parish Walford and Bishopswood in Herefordshire . From 1988 he spent his retirement in Tavistock .

In 2012 Lapage was back in public as an athlete. At the 2012 Olympic Games (London) he carried the Olympic torch to St Austell . In the same year he rowed the Gloriana barque with 17 other former Olympians during the Henley Royal Regatta .

Lapage died in 2018 at the age of 94. He left two daughters and a son.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f Michael Lapage. Wartime pilot who won a silver in rowing at the 1948 Olympics and became a missionary in Africa. In: The Daily Telegraph . August 3, 2018, p. 31.
  2. ^ Rowing Eight - Men Auckland 1950. In: thecgf.com. Retrieved August 18, 2018 .