[BITList] Just watch her

Tue Dec 13 12:31:09 GMT 2011

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Board,  Lillian Barbara  (1948-1970), athlete, was born in Addington Hospital, Durban, South Africa, on 13 December 1948, the second of the three children of George Board, a builder, and his wife, Frances Eleanor, nee Hamnett. She had a twin sister, Irene, born fifteen minutes after her. Her parents had emigrated from Manchester to South Africa, but the family became homesick and returned to England in 1950, initially to Manchester, where Lillian started primary school at St Paul's School, Wilmslow Road, Withington. When she was seven they moved to Ealing, west London, where she attended Drayton Green primary school, before going on to Grange Secondary Modern Girls' School. She began to show great promise as an athlete and, encouraged by her physical education teacher at school and her father, she joined the London Olympiades club. By the age of thirteen she had secured a place in the club's junior relay team and competed in the 100 yards, while also trying the long jump. Her natural ability and physical fitness, developed by her father (who was her trainer throughout her career), ensured that she became a fine long jumper: she won the event in the English schools championships in July 1963 and the junior event in the southern inter-counties championships in September 1963.

Over the next couple of years, however, Board gave up the long jump to concentrate on the sprints; her training regime, fixed by her father, became very serious and intense. The dedicated training paid off and in the 1964 season she found herself competing against, and beating, the best intermediate runners in the country at 100 and 220 yards. By the end of the season she competed in and won her first ever 880 yards, an event that she was to make her own as a senior. Young, strong, and 'a natural', Board was recognized as a possible successor to another of Britain's great female athletes, Mary Rand. Rand, the Olympic gold medallist and an inspiration and model for Lillian, tipped her to become an international athlete. 'Just watch her', Rand told the press, 'and in a couple of years she's going to be the greatest'  (Emery, 29). She had meanwhile left school and after taking a secretarial course at Chiswick Polytechnic worked as a typist in between carrying out her rigorous athletics training regime.

Board's international career began in 1966, when she ran in the 440 yards for England in the Commonwealth games at Kingston, Jamaica (8 August 1966); she was just seventeen. But it was a match between the USA and the Commonwealth at Los Angeles in 1967 that transformed her from a fine national athlete to a world-class sprinter. She surged from the back of the field on the final bend to come first in the 400 metres (9 July 1967), setting a European junior record of 52.8 seconds. The race was televised live and her performance gained her overnight fame. The press dubbed her Golden Girl, Princess of Pace, Golden Goddess, and Queen of the Quarter  (Emery, 53). Later that year she won the 400 metres at the European cup final in Kiev (15 September 1967), the only British winner in the competition.

In 1968 Board went to the Mexico Olympics, heavily tipped to win the 400 metres. Leading into the home straight, she was pipped for first by the relatively unknown French athlete Colette Besson. Of her second place Board said: 'It's lovely to win a silver medal, but I feel hurt when some people think I let the country down by not getting the gold. But I didn't really let them down. Colette was better than me on the day'  (Daily Mirror, 28 Dec 1970, 19). This pragmatic and refreshing attitude must have been difficult to maintain since she now found the weight of the country's expectations on her shoulders each time she ran. The British press and public adopted Board as something of a national icon. With her blonde good looks and 'fresh, friendly personality'  (The Times, 28 Dec 1970), she represented the 'feminine' side of athletics; her interest in fashion later led to her being taken on as a designer for a sportswear manufacturer. At the European championships in Athens she won two gold medals, for the 800 metres and the 4  400 metres relay (18 and 20 September 1969). Here she exacted some kind of 'revenge' over Colette Besson, whom she overtook during the final leg of the relay. Typically, her reaction to the victory was to run over and embrace Besson, telling reporters that 'I knew she felt just as I felt when she beat me in Mexico'  (ibid.).

In the 1970 new year's honours list Board's achievements were recognized with the appointment as MBE, an award that she said she treasured more than any Olympic medal. Her last race was on 20 June 1970, when she came third in the 800 metres at the women's Amateur Athletic Association championships. She had not been well for some time, but felt compelled to run. Her condition deteriorated and following an exploratory operation her 'severe back pains' were diagnosed as intestinal cancer. In November 1970 she travelled to Germany, choosing to fight the disease by the natural methods practised by Dr Josef Issels at his Ringberg cancer clinic at Rottach-Egern in Bavaria. She was unable to recover and died in a Munich hospital on 26 December 1970. Her death at the age of twenty-two was not only a tragedy for her family and friends but also a heavy blow to women's athletics in Britain. She was cremated at Putney and a memorial service was held in St Paul's Cathedral. Her fiance, David Emery, published her biography the following year.

Rachel Cutler 

Sources  D. Emery, Lillian (1971) + The Times (28 Dec 1970) + Daily Mirror (28 Dec 1970) + J. Huntington-Whiteley, ed., The book of British sporting heroes (1998), 46-7 [exhibition catalogue, NPG, 16 Oct 1998 - 24 Jan 1999] + CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1971)
Archives  SOUND BBC WAC
Likenesses  photographs, c.1966-1970, Hult. Arch. · photograph, 1967, repro. in Huntington-Whiteley, The book of British sporting heroes, 47 · photograph, 1968, Empics Sports Photo Agency, Nottingham [see illus.] · photographs, repro. in Emery, Lillian
Wealth at death  £1341: administration, 30 March 1971, CGPLA Eng. & Wales

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