Lord Burghley, Chariots of Fire and the Gentleman Amateur in British Athletics

Abstract

This article sets out to examine the life and career of Olympic athlete, politician and sports administrator David Cecil, Lord Burghley (1905–1981). Burghley, or the Marquess of Exeter as he became in later life, more perhaps than any other individual embodied the amateur ethos that dominated British and world athletics from the late Victorian period to the 1970s. Steeped in the view that ‘taking part was more important than winning’, Burghley played a vital role in upholding amateur principles, serving for lengthy spells in senior positions on the Amateur Athletic Association, the British Olympic Association, the International Amateur Athletics Federation and the International Olympic Committee. Although regarded by his critics as being out of touch by the close of his career, when professionalism was coming to the fore, it will be argued here that Burghley made a deep and lasting contribution to the evolution of both elite and grass roots athletics.