The Long Run
Authors: Joan Sullivan
LONG
RUN
Eric Mackenzie Robertson from the
Battle of the Somme to the Olympics
JOAN SULLIVAN
 | P.O. Box 2188, St. John’s, NL, Canada, A1C 6E6 WWW.BREAKWATERBOOKS.COM |
Copyright © 2015 Joan Sullivan
L
IBRARY AND
A
RCHIVES
C
ANADA
C
ATALOGUING IN
P
UBLICATION
Sullivan, Joan, 1963-
The long run / Joan Sullivan.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
978-1-55081-610-5 (paperback)
1. Robertson, Eric Mackenzie, 1892-1975. 2. Great Britain. Army. Royal Newfoundland Regiment--Biography. 3. World War, 1914-1918--Canada--Biography. 4. Olympic athletes--Newfoundland and Labrador--Biography.
5. Long-distance runners--Newfoundland and Labrador--Biography.
6. Newfoundland and Labrador--Biography.
I. Title.
FC2173.1.R63S85 2015
971.8
C
2015-904891-5
A
LL
R
IGHTS
R
ESERVED
. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit
www.accesscopyright.ca
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Breakwater Books acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador through the Department of Tourism,Culture and Recreation for our publishing activities.
PRINTED AND BOUND IN CANADA.
DEDICATION
Timothy Patrick Sullivan
February 3, 1968-September 3, 1972
&
Christopher Michael Sullivan
December 3, 1964-March 10, 2003
We remember.
The Army and Navy Club,
Pall Mall, London, S. W. 1.
Dear Robertson,
Thank you very much for your letter. I am always ready to take my hat off to a really good sportsman and you are certainly one of the best I have met. And not only in the running track have you proved yourself a good sportsman, but also on the battlefield, where you were wounded whilst “playing the greatest game of all” \viz. fighting for your team. I hope we shall meet again. If not, the best of luck to you wherever you may be.
Yours sincerely,
R. J. Kentish
Nothing but the End of the World
Pale, Frail, and a Definite Flight of Ideas
CHAPTER ONE
T
HE
1916 O
LYMPICS
never took place. But they still exist.
Officially known as the Games of the VI Olympiad, they were scheduled to be held in Berlin, Germany, in the summer of 1916. Due to the outbreak of World War I, they were eventually cancelled.
1
But because the Olympic Games are numbered according to the Olympiad, a four-year period as certain as the march of time, the Olympiad still progresses even if the competitions themselves are not held.
2
Berlin was selected as the host city during the 14th International Olympic Committee Session in Stockholm on July 4, 1912. The city defeated bids from Alexandria, Amsterdam, Brussels, Budapest, and Cleveland. French Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the IOC’s second president, hoped that awarding the games to Berlin might staunch some of that country’s growing militarism, and avert looming hostilities.
3
Germany was not the only nation adhering to this increasingly martial state of mind. The idea that war was the answer
to a lot of problems was gaining traction in several European governments, especially in the latter half of the 1900s.
Germany’s provocative mentality actually aspired to ancient Olympic ideals: participation in the Olympics, just like participation in war, was a nation-definer, and Germany had just been unified in 1871. Its bid for the games had been pugnaciously impressive, with marching parades and the promise of a new stadium, over which would fly de Coubertin’s new Olympic flag with its Delphic-inspired rings.
In Germany, military thought was infused throughout its political policy and stoked increased investment in armaments and mobilization. The German Army was called a “State within a State” and was absolutely complicit in the deteriorating international situation.
But many other nations were increasingly belligerent. Britain was rapidly weening its foreign policy off appeasement.
4
Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, France, and Britain all pumped up their military expenditures. The naval arms race between Germany and Britain had doubled the German battle fleet and produced the first British dreadnought (literally “fear nothing”), which was bigger, faster, and brandished with more firepower than anything else at sea. (Although it would be the weapons introduced and enhanced during the war—like gas, submarines, and tanks—combined with anachronistic or unproven battle strategies, that so massively extended the First World War’s destructive power.)
5
Still, Germany did not neglect preparations for the Olympics. Work on the Deutsches Stadion, “German Stadium,” began in 1912 at what was the Grunewald Race Course. Its capacity was 18,000. On June 8, 1913, the stadium was dedicated with the release of 10,000 pigeons flying over the 60,000 in attendance.
Program details were being finalized at the IOC Congress in Paris when word came that Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been assassinated.
6