Pam Davies née Evans 1934-2017
Obituary by Alan Mead
We are sad to report that Pam Davies, née Evans, died in hospital on Tuesday evening, 24th January. She had not been in the best of health for a little while. Pam was in her 83rd year and had been a Belgravian for over 40 years, joining in 1976 when her first club, Selsonia Ladies A.C. ceased to function. She was a Life Member of Belgrave Harriers and some time ago had been offered the Presidency but felt that she must decline at that time due to ill health; she was also a Past President and committee member of the Surrey County Athletics Association.
Although a much loved and esteemed Belgravian, respect for her as an athlete went way back to her career with Selsonia where through sheer hard work and determination she became one of the greatest female cross country runners our nation has seen. The daughter of Walter and Audrey Evans, she was born in Clapham in 1934. Her father was a keen sportsman but Pam didn’t particularly shine at running at school where sprints and jumps were just about the only events on the menu. Going up to University College, Leicester, to read physics and mathematics, she encountered the university sports club and, for the first time, serious running over longer distances. Returning to London during the holidays she gravitated to Tooting athletics track and was soon signed up by Selsonia. In her first run in the Surrey County Cross-Country Championships she placed 7th, and so began a love affair with an event that saw her take the senior title seven times along with two second places during the ‘60s.
By now she had met the man who became her husband, John Davies, at Tooting track. He was an outstanding runner himself, a devotee of the harsh training regime followed by British international and South London athletics hero – Gordon Pirie. John had been criticised for ‘training too hard’ (as indeed had Pirie) but together Pam and John made a formidable training duo and outstanding results soon followed. Up against household names in women’s distance running – Lincoln, Smith (both Anne and Joyce) and Ibbotson – Pam went on to win three Inter-County titles (she was placed three other times), twice won the ‘Southern’ title (with five other occasions on the podium), four consecutive ‘National’ titles during ’65 to ’68 (along with two ‘silvers’ and a ‘bronze’) and three times represented England in the ‘International’ Cross Country Champs. – placing 3rd in 1968.
Pam’s eldest son was born in 1969 and her second in 1974. Life had to be rearranged to cope with family life but she continued to train and was often to be seen running the streets of London late at night. All this was balanced with a teaching vocation; she had started at Kingsdale in Dulwich but spent most of her career at Battersea County.
As a runner, in time, she moved on to the longer road races and the marathon. In retrospect she admitted that in her prime she was quite prepared to die in her attempt to win a big race – such was her commitment – but in later life the sheer joy of meeting up with the Belgrave ‘Saturday crowd’ at the weekend, and the long runs with them around Richmond Park and along the Thames Towpath, gave her just as much pleasure; and at the end of such a run she would often be seen wielding the teapot behind the refreshment counter in the club house.
Pam Davies will always be remembered as a courageous and daunting athlete, as has been her husband John who passed away in 2011. Our commiserations go to her sons Max and Teddy.