Vera Searle
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| Born | 25 August 1901 Leytonstone, London, England | |||||||||||
| Died | 12 December 1998 (aged 97) Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England | |||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||
| Event | Sprints | |||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||
| Personal bests |
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Medal record
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Vera Maud Searle OBE (née Palmer; 25 August 1901 – 12 September 1998) was a British sprinter and athletics administrator.
Biography
[edit]Palmer was born in Leytonstone, London, on 25 August 1901 [1] to Albert Palmer (1878–1935), assistant secretary of Chelsea Football Club,[2] and Maud Mary Palmer (1879–1946). She was the eldest of four children.
In 1923 she co-founded the Middlesex Ladies Athletics Club, now the Ealing Southall & Middlesex Athletics Club. Later the same year, she participated at the first WAAA Championships taking bronze medal behind Eileen Edwards in the 220 yards.[3][4] The following year Palmer became the national 440 yards champion at the 1924 WAAA Championships.[5][6]
Competing as Vera Palmer, she set a world record at 250 metres of 35.4 seconds in 1923 Paris and in 1925, again set a world record at 250 metres of 33.8 seconds at Stamford Bridge.[7] In 1924 she participated at the 1924 Women's Olympiad and won the silver medal in running 250 m and the gold medal in the relay 4 x 220 yards.
In August 1926, she won silver (to compatriot Eileen Edwards) in the 250m at the 1926 Women's World Games, held at the Slottsskogsvallen Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden.[7]
In October 1926, she married Wilfred Edwin Searle, and they had two daughters together; Brenda born 1928 and Angela born 1935.[1]
She was honorary secretary of the Women's Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA) from 1930 to 1933, vice-chairman from 1959 to 1973, chairman from 1973 to 1981, and later president until the WAAA merged with the Amateur Athletic Association in 1991.[7] She received the OBE in 1979 for services to athletics.[7]
She died in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 12 September 1998.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Adam Szreter (8 October 1998). "Obituary: Vera Searle | Culture". The Independent. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
- ^ Williams, Jean (2014). A Contemporary History of Women's Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850-1960. Routledge. p. 134.
- ^ "Women First A.A.A. Meeting". Sunday Express. 19 August 1923. Retrieved 8 December 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Women's Sports". Birmingham Daily Gazette. 20 August 1923. Retrieved 8 December 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Record Performances by Women". The Scotsman. 30 June 1924. Retrieved 8 December 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists". National Union of Track Statisticians. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ a b c d e Watman, Mel (May 2012). "Women athletes between the world wars (act. 1919–1939) : Vera Maud Palmer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
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