‘Chariots’ hero Eric Liddell wins top honour in China

Published on 23/07/2012 00:59

ONE OF Scotland’s greatest Olympians is to be honoured in China, where he carried out missionary work.

Eric Liddell, whose story was told in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire, is to be given pride of place in a new museum planned by the city where he died.

Liddell, a devout Christian, famously decided not to run in the 100 metres, his main event, at the 1924 Paris Olympics, because the heats were to be held on a Sunday.

Instead, he competed in the 400 metres and won gold against all odds.

He then dedicated the rest of his life to teaching and preaching in China, and died in a Japanese internment in the city of Weifang during the Second World War, at age 43.

The internment camp is now a school, but a small museum and a memorial stone in Isle of Mull granite tell – in Chinese and English – Liddell’s story, near where he was buried in the camp grounds.

Now the city is planning a much larger museum, with a room dedicated to the Scot.

The building where he died will be converted into the new museum, with a reconstruction of Liddell’s prison room and a waxwork of him inside.

Zhao Guixia, headmistress at the school, said every new child was taught about Liddell’s achievements.

She said: “This part of history is a great treasure for all our school. We can see the great value of humanity, especially in Eric Liddell’s stories.”