16 January: Eric Liddell

Born on this date in 1902 was Eric Liddell, the Scottish Olympic athlete whose story is told in Chariots of Fire.

1. His parents were missionaries, and he was born in Tientsin, China, where he was educated until the age of five. Because he was born in China, some people regard him as the first Chinese Olympic gold medallist.
2. At six, he was sent to Eltham College, a boarding school in England for the sons of missionaries.
3. He excelled at sport in school. He was captain of both the Cricket and rugby teams, and won the Blackheath Cup for being the best athlete of his year.
4. He studied pure science at Edinburgh University. While he was there he also played rugby for the University Club and ran in the 100-yard and 220-yard races for the university. Liddell was inducted into the Scottish Rugby Hall of Fame for his achievements at that time.
5. A year before the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924, he won both the 100 and 200 yards races at the AAA Championships in athletics. His 100 yards time was 9.7 seconds, a British record which would not be broken for 23 years.
6. Hence, he was a shoe-in for the Olympics the following year, but there was a problem. The heats for his best event, the 100 metres, were to be held on a Sunday. As a devout Christian, Liddell withdrew from the competition so he wouldn’t have to compete on the Lord’s Day. Instead, he started training for the 400 metres, not his strongest event, but none of the races were on Sundays. He broke the Olympic and world records with a time of 47.6 seconds. This is the story which inspired the film, Chariots of Fire.
7. On the morning of the Olympic 400-metre final, Liddell received a note from one of the team masseurs. It read: "In the old book it says: 'He that honours me I will honour.' Wishing you the best of success always." Recognising the reference to 1 Samuel 2:30, Liddell knew someone other than his coach believed in him and the stance he had taken.
8. In 1925, Liddell followed in his father’s footsteps and went to China as a missionary. There, he met and married fellow missionary Florence Mackenzie, the daughter of Canadian missionaries.
9. In 1941 the British government advised British nationals to leave China because it had become a very dangerous place. Florence and the children left for Canada to stay with her family, but Liddell decided to stay and accepted a position at a rural mission station in Xiaozhang, where his brother, Rob, who was a doctor. The station was severely short staffed. Liddell went to relieve his brother, who was ill and needed to go on furlough.
10. He was captured and spent the last years of his life in a prison camp. He was popular with the children there and would referee their Basketball, rounders and hockey matches; but never got to see his own children again, or youngest daughter who was on the way when his wife left China. Liddell died on 21 February 1945, five months before liberation, from a brain tumour. He was buried there, and later, a Scottish engineer, Charles Walker, had a memorial built nearby from Isle of Mull granite. Today, the camp has been turned into a school and the children are taught about Liddell and his achievements.

Character birthday

Gauntlet, aka Terry Kennedy, major character in Golden Thread. One of a group of beings known as the Defenders of the Light, who trained in their home dimension to become warriors in ours. Their mission is to protect the human race from a powerful inter-dimensional monster known as The Shadow. The group re-incarnate and come together whenever The Shadow poses a threat. However, in Golden Thread, Gauntlet, due to a particularly traumatic incarnation and death in WWII, suffers from amnesia and doesn’t automatically realise who and what he is, and why he is on Earth.

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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