This is a photograph of my great grandfather Robert Thompson in fighting form. Anymore information on him would be appreciated.
Photograph and details courtesy of Sean Elkin.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This is a photograph of my great grandfather Robert Thompson in fighting form. Anymore information on him would be appreciated.
Photograph and details courtesy of Sean Elkin.
Sean, when you describe him as in “fighting form” I thought that he must be a boxer.
But this man was an athlete, probably a sprinter judging by the spikes in his running shoes.
In the 1930s local men could earn good money winning sprinting races.
My father was asked to run, but he refused when he found out that some of the races were fixed and he was expected to run to orders.
Yes in those days the athlete’s trainer carried a towel about with them, maybe he ran at Bell-Vue which used to stage professional athletics back in the day.