TORCH BEARER Official Publication of the Society of Olympic Collectors
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Volume 32 I Issue 1 I 2015 I ISSN 0954-2183 TORCH BEARER Official publication of the Society of Olympic Collectors 1859 1924 1866 1928 1870 1932 1875 1936 1896 1948 1900 1952 1904 1956 1906 1960 1908 1964 1912 1968 1920 1972 1924 1976 1928 1980 1932 1984 1936 1988 1948 1992 1952 1994 1956 1998 1960 2002 1964 2006 1968 2010 1972 2014 1976 2018 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 SOC Society of Olympic Collectors Society of Olympic Collectors Executive Committee Chairman Bob Wilcock email: [email protected] 24 Hamilton Crescent, Brentwood, Essex CM14 5ES, United Kingdom Vice-Chairman Vacant Secretary Paula Burger email: [email protected] 19 Hanbury Path, Sheerwater, Woking, Surrey GU21 5RB, United Kingdom Editor & Mike Pagomenos email: [email protected] Website Admin 8 Tayside Drive, Edgware, Middlesex HA8 8RD, United Kingdom Treasurer & David Frome email: [email protected] Distribution 129 Leicester Road, Bamet, Hertfordshire EN5 5EA, United Kingdom Manager Auction Manager Chris Cohen email: [email protected] 3 Cowham Close, Alfreton, Derbyshire DE55 7HG, United Kingdom Librarian Ken Cook email: [email protected] 31 Thorn Lane, Rainham, Essex RM13 9SJ, United Kingdom International Vacant Packet Secretary Public Relations Vacant Officer Committee Jonathan Rosenthal! email: [email protected] Member 7 Sandmoor Lane, Leeds LS17 7EA, United Kingdom Torch Bearer Back Issues: At present, most issues of Torch Bearer are still available to Volume 1, Issue 1 (March 1984), although some issues are no longer available. As stocks of issues are depleted they will not be reprinted and the Society cannot guarantee stocks of back issues for more than the last four years. Back issues cost £2 each, or £8 for a year's issues to Volume 24 and £2.50 per issue from Volume 25 except for Volume 25 issue 4b which is £4 and Volume 27 issue 1 which is £6. When ordering single issues please indicate which volume you require. UK cheques should be made payable to the 'Society of Olympic Collectors' and sent with your order to David Frome at the above address. Overseas payments should be made in £ Sterling via Paypal. Postage rates per issue are UK £0.60, Europe £2.30 and World £3.40. Library: Photocopies of articles are available through the Librarian at 10 pence per sheet. Please enclose payment with the order. Books may be borrowed, but postage must be paid in both directions. The Librarian's address is listed above. Copy Dates: Torch Bearer is usually published four times a year: in March, June, September and December. Articles or adverts for inclusion should be sent two months in advance. Torch Bearer Volume 32 I Issue 1 12015 I ISSN 0954-2183 Contents April 2015 Editorial 2 Robert Kevin Farley 1955-2015 3 The Wonderland Olympic Games of Gerald M. King 7 The Reverend C B Greatrex aka Lindon Meadows 12 Athens 1906 - Cesare Tifi 14 Athens 1906 - The Pancrastinae 17 8th International Olympic Congress in Prague badge 18 Munich 1972 - West Germany's gold medallists 19 Membership Membership of the Society of Olympic Collectors starts on election, of which applicants will be notified, and will last for one calendar year. All back issues of the magazine for the current year will be sent to members joining during the year. Junior members are those aged under 18 years in the year of joining, subscription rates are half of the adult rate until their 18th birthday. All applications for membership should be made to the Secretary. Subscription rates for 2015 when making payment in £ sterling, € or $US currency notes or £ sterling cheques are as follows: United Kingdom: £15.00 / Europe: €30.00 / Outside Europe: €35.00 or $US45.00 Subscription rates for 2015 when making payment through Paypal are as follows: United Kingdom: £16.00 / Europe: £22.00 / Outside Europe: £27.00 Payments are accepted through Paypal in £ sterling only and include the additional costs involved with accepting payment through Paypal. 1 Editorial Bob Wilcock begins this issue by remembering Bob Farley, our former chairman and editor. Bob Farley was a powerhouse that kept the Society of Olympic Collectors going for two decades. Despite 2015 being inbetween Sochi and Rio there are a number of Olympic anniversaries with round numbers that fall between Olympics this year. These include: the 90th anniversary of a notable International Olympic Congress in Prague; the 100th anniversary of the IOC's relocation to Lausanne; then more curiously there is the 150th anniversary of the Wonderland Olympic Games which should raise some eyebrows. Two articles in this issue touch on two of these anniversaries. Moving back to the 19th century we unearth two pseudonyms with unexpected Olympic connections in Oxford and Much Wenlock. On entering the 20th century we find two unofficial souvenirs, with Italian influences, from the IOC's 2nd International Olympic Games. From the 1925 Congress in Prague, the official badge worn by the delegates. Then fast forward to Munich 1972 for some unofficial but appropriate tegestology. There is a loose theme running throughout this issue. The 1865 Wonderland Olympic Games is a fantasy. The 1866 National Olympian Games in London was real but is not officially recognised by the IOC as an Olympic Games. Nor are the Athens 1859, 1870 and 1875 Olympics that are listed on the cover officially recognised by the IOC despite being international events. The 1906 Athens Olympic Games, held under IOC auspices, was originally and officially the IOC's 2nd International Olympic Games and now it is not. 'International Sports Week 1924' was only named and recognised as the first Winter Olympic Games after the event just as Paris 1900 and St Louis 1904 were only recognised after Athens 1906. All items illustrated in this issue are unofficial souvenirs except for the IOC's Congress badge. In the same vein, the IOC officially claims that Athens 1896 was 'the first modern Olympic Games' despite the fact that Athens 1896 was the third modern Olympics to be hosted in the Panathenaic stadium and the fourth modern Olympics to be hosted in Athens. Yet, the IOC claims that only the IOC revived the Olympic Games in modern times. Nor did Jacques Rogge, former president of the IOC, have any difficulty in announcing to the world, during his speech at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Ceremony, 'Athletes, these Games were created for you by our founder, Pierre de Coubertin'. The IOC and the organizing committee for Athens 1896 adopted ideas, funding, methodology, ceremonies, as well as a venue from past Olympics and the Olympic revival progressed from these earlier Olympics that the IOC does not officially recognise or credit. There really is no difficulty in disputing the IOC's brash claims. However, teachers, historians and the global media teach our children the IOC's 'official' version of history and ignore what actually happened. I have to admit that I too was hoodwinked by the IOC's 'official' version and it has taken me years of reading early modem Olympic history to appreciate that. However, the IOC is clearly having difficulty distinguishing historical reality from its own retroactively-invented fantasy. Readers may notice that Torch Bearer has a different format since Bob Farley used Microsoft Excel software and I am using, for the very first time, open source desktop publishing software Scribus 1.4.5. Forgive my learning curve which was inevitable whichever software application I used since I have not needed to use DTP software for more than 25 years. Also, unlike Bob, I do need to sleep more than 7 hours in every 24 and therefore Torch Bearer will inevitably be thinner than it used to be. I also hope that others will find the confidence to step forward to volunteer to edit Torch Bearer since I am not planning to do so for more than a year. 2 Robert Kevin Farley 1955-2015 by Bob Wilcock I don't know when Bob started collecting the Olympics, but he joined the Society in 1985, just a year after its formation, went to his first Olympics, in Calgary, in 1988, and promptly wrote a series of reports in his hallmark style - accurate and comprehensive reporting laced with fascinating details of his personal experiences at the Games. In 1994 he became Editor of the Society's magazine, Torch Bearer. Soon he was producing it, using Excel spreadsheets in a way Microsoft never imagined - no fancy desk top publishing programme for Bob! In recent years he was printing it too. In 1996 he became Chairman, and has been driving the Society forward with enthusiasm ever since. More recently he was appointed to the IOC's Collectors Commission and was a member of a working party to reform the way the IOC interacts with collectors. All this and a living to earn - it's a good job he only needed 3 or 4 hours sleep a night! For Bob Olympic collecting was not just a hobby it was a passion that went through to his very soul. A passion Bob wanted to share. For him having a collection was just the end result of an energetic, well-planned, very personal, very social and very enjoyable process. You cannot really understand Olympic collecting without going to the Olympics. Juan Antonio Samaranch, former President of the IOC described collecting as "the sport of spectators", and this was Bob's sport - mind you he did not do a lot of spectating - as Brenda knows only too well he would spend more time in post offices that watching events. Olympic collecting took Bob all round the world. He attended every Summer and Winter Olympics from 1992, and with every Games his circle of friends expanded.