Gordon Biscoe, 69 years a Belgravian, 1932-2021
Gordon Biscoe, top left, celebrates with his team after winning the prestigious Johnston Road Relay in 1969.
Very sadly, on Friday 12 February, we had to say farewell to Gordon Biscoe, a great friend, and colleague, with whom we have shared so much of our lives with ‘the Harriers’.
After being unwell for a while, Gordon suffered from complications that set in after a routine operation. He was in his 89th year and had almost completed 68 years of membership. Our deepest condolences go to Gordon’s wife Margaret and their children Richard and Catherine.
Through ups and downs in the fortunes of our Club over nigh on seven decades, we fondly remember Gordon’s sense of humour allied to a determination that he would do whatever he could for Belgrave Harriers as a competitor, committee member, team manager, and administrator.
We remember Tuesday and Thursday night pack runs from Belgrave Hall, way back in the 70s … sharing thoughts and ideas while on the regular 9-mile ‘Kingston Run’ … and so much more. We remember the occasion, not much more than half a dozen years ago … when …
… It was a bitterly cold December Saturday morning. Two hoary veterans, though clad in woollen hats, waterproof suits, and wearing stout boots, felt the chill rising from the soggy ground on the Common. The sleet-laden wind stung their faces as they hammered home a row of iron spikes and linked them with plastic tape.
“You know,” said Gordon, “I’m getting too old for this.”
Just then, a rather officious-looking gent approached the duo. “Excuse me. What do you think you are doing?”
Without an instant’s hesitation, up spake Gordon: “We’re marking out the route of the new spur road across the Common from Tibbetts Corner down to Raynes Park.
It was left to Gordon’s colleague to laughingly calm down the now rather apoplectic gentleman. “No, we’re putting up the finishing area for a cross-country race to be held here this afternoon by the local harriers.
Yes, Gordon had a wicked sense of humour. There was the time, the evening before a Belgrave 12-Stage Road Relay, that he was reaching under a car parked on a corner at the top of Wool Road. He was wielding a pot of white paint and a paintbrush when he was accosted by a resident who wondered why on earth this man seemed determined to paint a huge arrow under his neighbour’s car. “We’re diverting the 200 bus route!” was Gordon’s response.
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Gordon was born on 30 October 1932, the son of Reginald Edward Biscoe and his wife Cicely. Reg was Head Warehouseman, Transport Supervisor & Chief Clerk in the removals and warehousing department of Harrods. The family lived in an apartment at the magnificent Harrods Depository, Barnes. The five-storey building, overlooking the Thames, with its riverside quay and cranes, was once described as ‘absurdly grand,’ designed to reflect (but not outdo) the grandeur of the Knightsbridge store it served; elegant bands of brick and stone, faience tiling, ornate flourishes, and two domed towers reminiscent of pavilions of the Indian Raj. What a place to grow up, especially when, during wartime, there was the prestige of one’s father being a key man in the Harrods Auxiliary Fire Service; and what a splendid vantage point from which to enjoy the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.
Discovering a talent for running at an early age, Gordon ran competitively during his school days and then, when undergoing his two years National Service, achieved further success while serving with the Royal Air Force, winning a Shropshire County Cross-Country title with them. Back in ‘civvy street’ and returning to London, Gordon determined that he’d like to continue his running and decided to join Belgrave Harriers. He was elected a member in April 1953.
Like many another young man, Gordon found that accomplishments in a sport at school and the services were not necessarily naturally followed by continued success among a ‘band of brothers’ whose aim was to achieve victory at area, national, and even international level. But Gordon slipped happily into a group always known as the ‘engine room.’ They backed up the star-studded teams; and he could bring organisational skills, flair, and sheer love for the club into play, qualities without which no club could be successful. Gordon’s first love was always the road, not that he completely forsook the track where he could run half a mile in a few seconds over two minutes, the mile in just over four and a half minutes and three miles just inside the quarter-hour. He liked to recount that he probably held the record for the ‘Bridges,’ a circuit taking in the Thames Embankment and the perimeter of Battersea Park, if one only counted those who had run in two left shoes; and that he was selected more times than anyone else as the first reserve for the London to Brighton Relay.
He was a natural for Road Running Captain in 1964, and after three years became the Road Running Secretary, taking over from Derek Crookes. Social events were important to Belgrave in the ’60s, and for a couple of years Gordon was organising events that included a visit to Belgrave Hall by the legendary Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen; thus, our man was able to overlap two of his passions. Then in 1969, when Bill Lucas stepped down as Cross-Country Secretary, Gordon added that job to his portfolio as well.
When it came to organising races, Gordon cut his teeth on the Belgrave 20 Miles Road Race, a prestigious event that often-incorporated county and intercounty championships and attracted runners from all over the country. It was thanks to this race that Gordon met his future wife, Margaret, who was the Centre Organiser of the Wimbledon Red Cross who always gave medical support to this event.
The old London to Brighton Relay came to a halt in 1964, the roads becoming too busy to carry such an event any longer. Belgrave stepped in to organise a replacement 12-Stage Relay around the roads of Wimbledon and soon this included the South of England Championship, lasting until 1992, and carrying the burden of the organisation of the race for over a quarter of a century, on behalf of the Bels., was G.I. Biscoe.
The Belgrave Committee benefitted from Gordon’s presence since the early 1960s and always, if there was any club activity being organised in any sphere, one could guarantee that Gordon would be involved, perhaps chairing sub-Committees, sorting out heaps of junk before a jumble sale, and for our later generation of top runners in this millennium, helping to put up the team tent at crack of dawn on National Road Relay days … he was everywhere.
It is not as if Gordon had nothing else to do. He was by profession a Chartered Electrical Engineer, working for a research association, with his business sometimes taking him overseas. He was a jazz devotee and, of course, was a devoted family man.
Gordon was elected a Life Member in 1976 and was made President for 1985-1986. He became a Club Trustee in 2002.
He served on the Surrey County AA Committee, the South of the Thames Cross Country Association Committee, and South of England AA General Committee; he was President of the South of Thames for 1984-1985, Vice President of the SEAA in 2006-2007, and President from 2007-2009 (when he was delighted to present medals to his young club-mates on several occasions.) On top of all this, he was a member of the SEAA Road Running & Cross-Country Working Groups for eleven years and was the SEAA’s representative at the English Road Running Association. All this and a qualified timekeeper as well.
No wonder that the London Federation of Sports & Recreation presented Gordon with a ‘gold’ award for over 30 years of service to athletics, and then ten years later a ‘platinum’ award for over 40 years of service.
Obituary by Alan Mead, February 2021
For further information see the full obituary by Alan Mead at https://www.belgraveharriers.info/biscoe-gordon-ivor