In 2012, we posted a highlight about local long-distance runner, Frank Close, who represented Great Britain at the 1936 Olympics. However, the release of the 1921 census and searching through newspapers has enabled us to discover more information about his family and career, including how remarkable his appearance at the Olympics was considering he was in hospital only months before!
Frank Close was born in York in 1913 to William Henry and Ruth Close. The 1921 census reveals that they were a fairly large family who travelled around a lot. There are six Close children listed in the census, including Frank, and they were born in a variety of locations including Farnham, Surrey, and Limerick and Dublin, both Ireland. By 1915 the family had moved to Newbury where Frank’s younger brother and sister were born. Whilst at school, his main sports of interest were football and cricket and he played for both Newbury Reserves and Newbury Wednesday. He did not start running until around 1931 by which time he had left school and was working at Colthrop Board Mill. He was spotted running the mile race at Thatcham Flower Show, where he finished second, by Mr Bert Hunt, known as “Mick”. He likewise worked at Colthrop Board Mill but was also “an old runner of some accomplishment” (D/EX2117/10/11). They started training together and Hunt became his coach.
Frank soon joined Reading Athletic Club and it was there that he was encouraged to start cross country running. His breakthrough year was in 1935 when he won the Southern Counties Championships in his first ever ten-mile race, followed by winning the National Cross-Country Championships at Beaconsfield two weeks later. In recognition of his achievements, Reading AC decided to include a race in their annual sports event “especially for Mr. Close” who chose a two-mile distance (D/EX2096/1/6 - 29 March 1935).
His first international race came later that year when he took part in the international cross-country race in Paris where teams from England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Spain, Wales, and Northern Ireland competed. Despite struggling for a period of the race and having to drop back, his strong finish enabled him to gain a 4th place finish, only 28 seconds behind the winner (The Reading Standard, Friday 29 March 1935). Indeed, his finishing speed was so great that the Town Clerk of Newbury is said to have remarked “He is travelling so fast that if he had half-a-mile to go…I believe he would get up” (D/EX2117/10/14).
By the end of the 1935 season, Frank Close was a British cross-country star. However, newspaper reports from October 1935 spread fear that it may be his only season. Several articles mention that he was about to enter Charing Cross Hospital for treatment due to illness and that he would not be racing during the next six months and in fact may never race cross-country again. An exclusive report in The Reading Standard (4 October 1935) reveals that Frank was receiving treatment for “sugar diabetes”. The treatment of diabetes had changed a lot over the previous 50 years as the disease was better understood. Insulin had been discovered by a team working at the University of Toronto in 1921 and the first person was treated with it in January 1922. It revolutionised the treatment of diabetes with many patients going on to live long and fruitful lives.
We did not find any details about Frank’s treatment specifically, but it was clearly successful as less than six months after the initial reports about his going into hospital there are articles about him winning races again. In early February 1936 he won the South of the Thames cross-country championship at Dartford out of a field of 208 runners. He covered the 10½ miles in 52mins 58 secs (Leeds Mercury, 10 February 1936). Later that month he defended his three miles title at the Berks, Bucks and Oxon C.C. Association’s championship, appearing through the mist with only one close rival but his “trademark strong finish” secured him the victory (Reading Standard, 21 February 1936).
The next few months would again be eventful ones for Frank Close. He resigned from Reading Athletic Club in early-March, just a few weeks after they had granted him Life Membership (D/EX2096/1/6). In June later that year, he would refuse to run the mile for Berkshire at the British Games. Later articles show that he went on to represent Surrey, so his running career continued, albeit for a different county.
In 1936 he competed in the three miles in the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) championship where he came second behind Peter Ward. With this placing, he secured a place on the Olympic team and went on to represent Great Britain at the Berlin Olympics in the 5000m. He finished second in his heat to the eventual winner, Finland’s Gunnar Höckert, but only managed 12th in the final.
There are a few reports about Frank competing in races in 1938-1939 but the peak of his career appears to have been when he was running for Reading AC. His career was probably ended by the start of the Second World War, like so many others. However, the newspaper articles did reveal that Frank was the victim of more than one surprising accident whilst on the running track. The first occurred in May 1935 during Frank’s breakthrough season. The Reading Standard reported that a “clown was amusing the crowd with his antics” at the Mitcham A.C. Jubilee sports whilst the two miles race was taking place. Unfortunately, the clown’s “tumbling carried him on to the running track where he collided with the Reading man”! Fortunately, Frank “survived the “bump” and continued on his course to win by forty yards” (Reading Standard, 10 May 1935, p.19).
The next incident we came across was of a much more serious nature and took place at the AAA indoor athletic championship at Wembley in April 1938. Frank was once again running the two miles race when he was struck in the stomach by an 8lb shot which had ricocheted off the edge of the track during the women’s weight-putting competition. He collapsed but later recovered and was included as a qualifier for the final. Another newspaper report (Aberdeen Press and Journal, 18 April 1938, p.5) about the championship notes how a Miss B Reid set an indoor record for the furthest a weight had been thrown by a woman in Britain, a distance of 36ft 4¾in (over 11m), so perhaps Frank was the victim of a record-breaking throw.
Despite his relatively short career, Frank clearly had a successful and eventful time!
Other Sources
https://www.drwf.org.uk/news-and-events/news/100-years-of-insulin/