Middle distance star Bob Taylor, 1930-2021
We were saddened to learn very recently of the death of Bob Taylor this month. Bob was in his 90th year and had served the club for 71 of those years, undoubtedly one of the most popular members. We believe that he had no known close living relations; Belgrave Harriers was, and had been for so long, his family.
Bob pictured in second in the 1953 Heathfield Trophy half-mile. He went on to win the race.
Bob has been described as one of the closest near-misses British Athletics ever had. He was born in Hammersmith on 3 June 1931. He dabbled with some success at cross-country while doing National Service and ended up signing up for Belgrave Harriers in September 1949. Once he had decided to take things seriously, he began to think about what it would take to become a top-class runner in an era when the English middle-distance scene was dominated by such greats as Nankeville, Parlett, Eyre, and a young Roger Bannister.
After a couple of seasons of serious training he made his breakthrough in 1952 and the following year he was gaining recognition as a young man making great progress. Representative honours came as he gained A.A.A., Middlesex, and Civil Service vests, was the outright winner of the Heathfield and Brockman Trophy half-miles and took silver medal in the Kinnaird Trophy behind Australia’s Macmillan
In 1954, with the magic of the four-minute mile ‘barrier’ becoming a reality, photographs and reports of middle-distance races abounded, and many times they featured R.T. Taylor of Belgrave Harriers. Bob even made the front page of Athletics Weekly when he ran to a ridiculously easy win in the Gordon Stewart Trophy 1-mile on the five-laps-to-the-mile Drayton Green track.
Two weeks after his Drayton Green exploits Bob took up an invitation, along with some of the top milers of the day, to take part in an attempt to break Bannister’s 2:56.8 ¾ Mile Record at Paddington Track. A slower than expected first half-mile of 2:04 by Don Macmillan meant that the record was safe but with 200 yards to go Brian Hewson let rip, chased hard by Bob. Bill Nankeville finished strongly as the tape was neared and nipped past the Belgrave man but just 1.6 seconds covered the first five: 1 B. Hewson 2:59.8; 2 W. Nankeville 3:00.4; 3 R. Taylor 3:00.8; 4 J. Disley 3:01.0; 5 D. Macmillan 3:01.2.
With the European Championships in Bern on the horizon and then the British Empire & Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, anything seemed possible. A win and club record now came for Bob in the Heathfield Trophy 880 yards – but fate was to intervene. A chest infection took a turn for the worse and suddenly, Bob was not only out of contention but was not to race again for three years.
In 1957 he managed to get back some of his fitness and he completed his own ‘hat-trick’ of Club Championship 880 yards wins, having had two years of illness when the title was ‘loaned’ to others. For the next few years, he collected further medals in Club races, but although not one to bemoan his fate or utter out loud what might have been, Bob must have seen, in his dreams, the vision of: ‘Bannister outkicking Landy at Vancouver in ’54, only to be outkicked himself by the comparative newcomer to international athletics Bob Taylor of Belgrave.’
Bob held various posts in Belgrave Harriers as Running or Track Captain, and in September 1962 took over as Track Secretary, a position he held until 1971. He was elected a Life-Member in 1960 and was made Club President for 1965-1966.
ARM 30 March 2021. Read the full version at https://www.belgraveharriers.info/taylor-bob