An Olympic Connection

The Olympics are very much in the air and it would appear that Pembroke Dock can lay claim to a world class runner who competed in the Games long ago.

His name was Reginald 'Reggie' Heber Thomas, born in Pembroke Dock in 1907, and educated at the Coronation School.

I learnt about him from Dilys Hanmer, who had found a photograph which she thought would be of interest to readers of this column.

"I was reading the Pembrokeshire Magazine," Dilys told me, "and saw an article about Reggie Thomas. It so happens that I have a photograph of my father coaching him."

Dilys's father was James (Jim) Evans. She went on: "Father worked in the dockyard, where he was, I believe, an inspector of Stores. He was also a very keen sportsman and a fine coach: one of his claims to fame was that he coached Reg Thomas, the Olympic runner."

Dilys then showed me this old photograph, which, she believed, was taken in the early 1920s.

"My father is there on the left, looking very dapper in his suit and straw boater, and on the far right crouched in starting position, is Reggie Thomas."

Not many people may have heard of him nowadays but, in his day, Reggie was actually one of the top middle distance runners in the world. After leaving school, and Pembroke Dock, he enlisted in the RAF, where his athletics prowess was fostered and he competed in international events.

He competed in the  1928 Summer Olympics at  Amsterdam, the  1930 British Empire Games (for England), and the 1932 Summer Olympics at Los Angeles.

At the 1930 Empire Games, he won the gold medal for England in the one-mile contest (04:14 minutes) and the silver medal in the 880 yards event.

Apparently, he could not compete for Wales because Wales did not have a national athletics association at the time. Welsh track and field athletes could only compete for England in 1930, although Welsh swimmers did compete for their home nation (information gleaned from Wikipedia). Reggie was unlucky with injuries, which denied him an Olympic medal.

Tragically, this local hero died at the age of 39. He had remained with the RAF as a test pilot after the war and he was killed while on a test flight in an RAF Lancaster bomber in 1946, managing to steer the plane clear of Brownshill before its fatal crash.

"It was always passed down the family that my father had trained Reggie Thomas but he also trained the Pembroke Rugby Team," added Dilys, showing me a photograph of the team after winning the 1922-23 County Cup.

You can see Jim Evans standing, a towel over his shoulder, on the far left of the picture.

Dilys was also able to name a few of those present; in the front row, seated on the left, is Gibba Lewis and next to him Frankie Bowen. Her brother Garfield is sitting on the far right. In the second row third along is Dick Hubbard (in the suit) and fifth along, also in a suit, is Mr. ? Lewis. On the far right is Skidda Powell. Of interest to Pembroke people, the distinctive gentleman second along the back row is Lew Rees, father of the late Connie Brown MBE.

"Garfield was only 14 at the time this picture was taken," said Dilys. "He was really too young to play in the adult team, but was a big lad and looked a lot older than his years so could easily pass for 16. He was such a good kicker! I can remember mother worrying about him going away to play in Llangwm, which was then to us a far off place. Pembroke was such a good team that the Llangwm women would push their prams out into the field to stop our players running!"

Dilys also had another photograph, which is included here. This one is of the Coronation School Rugby Team, winners of the County Cup 1920-21. They enjoyed a brilliant season and were defeated only twice out of a total of 30 games. Brother Garfield is pictured here also, seated to the right of the lad with the ball; he was actually the top scorer gaining 53 points. The only other person Dilys could name in this photograph is the headmaster, a Mr. Barnes.

Just a reminder

Our annual general meeting is this evening (Friday, February 17) at 7 pm in Monkton Priory Church Hall. This will be followed at 7.30 pm by a talk: local artist and historian George Lewis will be talking on the subject of 'The art of pen drawing' and this promises to be an entertaining evening. Everyone is welcome and the event is free.

If you have any stories or photographs for this column, please contact me, Linda Asman, on 01646 622428 or email [email protected]">[email protected]. Visit our website http://www.pembrokeandmonktonhistory.org.uk">www.pembrokeandmonktonhistory.org.uk to keep up to date with our news and events.