Lancelot Royle
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||
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| Born | 31 May 1898 Barnet, London, England | |||||||||||
| Died | 19 June 1978 (aged 80) London, England | |||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||
Event | Sprints | |||||||||||
| Club | Surrey AC | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Captain Sir Lancelot Carrington Royle, KBE (31 May 1898 – 19 June 1978) was a British Olympian and businessman.[1]
Royle was an Olympic athlete (Paris 1924) and chairman and CEO of Allied Suppliers Ltd., Home and Colonial Stores Ltd., Lipton Ltd., NAAFI and one of Britain's leading 20th century retail businessmen.
Lancelot Royle was the son of the Rev. Vernon Royle, the famous test cricketer, and grew up at Stanmore Park, north of London. He was educated at Harrow School and RMA Woolwich.
Early career
Royle left Harrow in 1916 and was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery and shipped out to France to fight in the First World War. He was to remain in the European theatre until the Armistice in 1918.
At the end of the war, Royle remained in the army, and was encouraged to develop his sporting prowess. He was a highly talented sprinter, competing regularly with the likes of Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell for honours. He was British Army sprint Champion in 1920 and 1921, but resigned his commission as a lieutenant later the same year. He finished second behind Harry Edward in the 100 yards event at the 1922 AAA Championships.[2][3][4]
In 1924, he represented Great Britain as part of the "Chariots of Fire" team in Paris. He won a silver medal in the 4 * 100 relay,[5][6] in a team including Harold Abrahams. He was also a talented 200-meter sprinter, and it was he that gave up his spot to allow Eric Liddell to run the 200-metre race where Liddell won bronze.
