The Long Run (8 page)

117
David E. Martin and Roger W.H. Gynn,
The Olympic Marathon
(Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2000), 1.

118
Martin and Gynn,
Marathon
, 3.

119
Ibid., 3-4.

120
Ibid., 4-5.

121
Ibid., 20.

122
Ibid., 36.

123
Miller,
The Official History
, 73.

124
John R. Gold,
Olympic Cites: City Agendas, Planning and the World’s Games
(London: Routledge, 2007), 27.

125
Miller,
The Official History
, 72.

126
Miller,
The Official History
, 73-74. The newly formed Soviet Union, though, refused to engage in such a bourgeois affair; they would not enter the Olympics until 1952.

127
Miller,
The Official History
, 73–75.

128
Fred Mason, “A ‘New-found’ Olympic Nation – Newfoundland’s Involvement With the Olympic Games, 1904-1934,” in
Proceedings: International Symposium for Olympic Research
(October 2006), 306.

129
Martin and Gynn,
Marathon
, 98.

130
Mason, “New-found,” 306.

131
Martin and Gynn,
Marathon
, 96-107.

132
The letter addressed to Robertson, used as the epigraph to this book.

133
In
The Olympic Marathon
, Martin and Gynn state that forty-eight runners took to the field; Kentish says there were forty-nine; in either case, only thirty-five completed the race, with Robertson the last to finish.

134
This and other information on Robertson’s health and personal and financial situation are from his Department of Veteran’s Affairs file, AI-2013-00076.

135
Mason, “New-found,” 308.

CHAPTER TEN

R
OBERTSON NEVER TRADED
on his Olympic connection. In fact, he seems to have hardly mentioned it at all.

His leg, for now, seemed healed, though his ears, which had been infected after he suffered measles as a six-year-old, were a bit of a nuisance. (Robertson would always contend that the trouble “restarted in Gallipoli.”) Still he kept very active and was much involved with sports, coaching St. Bon’s track and field and hockey; judging, training, and touring with a number of local track-and-field teams; and helping found the Newfoundland Amateur Athletic Association (1921).

On August 27, 1930, Robertson married Gertrude Isabel Oake at St. Thomas’s Church in St. John’s. Gertrude was the daughter of Jesse Oake, a merchant, and fourteen years his junior. Their daughter, Douglass, was born in 1931.

After returning to work with his father at Wholesale and Retail Dry Goods, by 1939 he had taken over the business entirely. He managed it until 1945 then he sold it, as well as his house on Bonaventure Avenue (to two of his sisters), when he, Gertrude, and Douglass emigrated to the States.

In 1949 Robertson returned to Newfoundland, alone. He was not in happy circumstances, and his downward spiral
continued. Two years later, he would write the Canadian Pensions Commission:
¹³⁶

“
Confidential
”

24 Bonaventure Ave
¹³⁷
St. John’s, Nfld
Dec 10th/1951

The Canadian Pensions Commission,

Dear Sirs,

In reference to my application, at my own request, on behalf of my wife, for allowance(s), I wish to submit the following statement.

We were married on August 27th/1930, and from that date until May 1950—I was able to support my wife, and daughter,
^138
139
substantially.

In 1945, we decided to migrate to the ‘USA’.
¹⁴⁰
We left Newfoundland on August 21st/1945,
¹⁴¹
arriving in New York USA, on August 22nd/1945, and proceeded from there to Waltham, Mass, to be near
¹⁴²
who she lived with, for some years, before our marriage.

As soon as we got settled there, I absolutely realized that I had made a mistake, in disconnecting myself, from my friends, and business connection in St. John’s, Nfld, and immediately resented the drastic change-over.

I made a splendid effort to establish myself in Boston, with my English Woollen Agencies, (World War II, had just ended) but unfortunately for me, firms like Messrs. Jordan Marsh, Filene’s,
¹⁴³
Gilchrist’s,
¹⁴⁴
Sterns, and White
¹⁴⁵
etc. had started a retrenchment programme, and were not inclined to place orders, at the very high prices prevailing at that period.

There was nothing else left but take jobs in the “low-brackets,” as I had no trade, and millions of USA soldiers were returning home, to their previous positions etc.

Naturally, I worked under very trying conditions, and resented my embarrassing position, but I stuck it out, until Dec. 1948, when I returned home for the Xmas-Season. My wife
followed via plane, a fortnight later, when she obtained her holidays.

During our stay in Waltham, from August 1945, to September 1946, we were allowed $100.00/xx per month, from my account in the Bank of Nova Scotia, by the Nfld Exchange Control Board,
¹⁴⁶
which was raised to $150.00/xx per month, a few months after our arrival in Waltham, at my request, on account of the very high living conditions etc.

My wife
returned to the USA from Nfld on January 6th/1949, and I followed exactly a month later, as I had some business and financial affairs to clear up.

In June 1949, we put
and then my wife decided to take a position at Duxbury Mass.
to get clear of the terrific heat of July and August, in Waltham.

I decided to come back home for the two months, and the three of us would open up the apartment again in September 1949.

I decided to do this on the 4th of July 1949, and I got the ship at Boston on July 6th/1949. –Did not bother to get a re-entry permit, as I was fed-up, discontented, and unsettled, anyway I felt that I could fix things up with the American Authorities here in St. John’s, if I decided to return, as I had my British passport etc. In the meantime, I got absolutely “run down”, after severe stomach colic attacks, Neuritis,
¹⁴⁷
Running-ears, and a terrific sun-burning, trying to knock the Neuritis out of my system, and to aggravate my condition further, my War Wounds and Varicose-veins were causing me a lot of trouble. (tough-stuff )

I arrived home, irritated, aggravated and infuriated, and ran right into the political upheaval, and like a darn fool got linked up with “the Victoria Reign die-hards” (PCs) in St. John’s.

I started to get a few agencies going again to re-establish myself, and had just got going, when Confederation came along, which left me out in the cold, and shot them to pieces etc.

Before and during the political campaign, in my severe condition, I started to tip my elbow 100% (never say die) and that continued until November 1st/1949, when after putting pneumonia over on my feet, I had a bad relapse, after 10/12 days drinking, and my Doctor was forced to put me in the General Hospital, where I stayed until Dec. 29th/1949. I ended up absolutely in the Rats (chasing them) and my brain was gone, so they had to get Dr. Jerry O’Brien, from the Mental Hospital, and he gave me two/three weeks
of Insulin injections (shock)
¹⁴⁸
and I came out of it. – “Just like the bird.” (we old soldiers are tough-stuff ). This (Insulin shock) brought me back to Normal and fortunately I snapped back and have had the guts to leave Liquor alone ever since (not that it frightened me in the least—I just slipped back to the old War days, when I did not drink).