My Dad at the 1948 London Olympics - Blog Day 11

The Opening Ceremonies for the 1948 London Olympics were held at London's Wembley Stadium

on July 29th, 1948.

The Canadian Olympic Team walking into Wembley Stadium which shows where Dad was in the group.

Here, the Canadian Olympic Team ladies are on their way to the flag unveiling ceremony, lead by Ann Clark from the Women's Track Team.

This is the Canadian Olympic Team marching into Wembley Stadium under the Olympic motto and where the Olympic Flame will be lit ...

 .... and marching past the King and Queen of England.

The Olympians were to look at King George as they passed, and as you can see below, King George stood to salute the athletes.

King George, father of the current Queen Elizabeth, is the King who has recently been made famous from the film, "The King's Speech".  He is the same King who presided over the 1948 London Olympics and to whom "God Save the King" was sung.  His wife, Queen Elizabeth, is who became known as the Queen Mother .... the currently Queen Elizabeth's mother.

This was the first Olympics that was ever televised (television camera on the left) ...... although in my father's case, his family back in Canada did not have a television so they relied on listening to the radio for their Olympic coverage in 1948.

The Olympic Torch is carried by England's athlete, John Mark where he lit the Olympic Flame under the Olympic motto that was above the stands.


The Olympic Motto was a quotation from the founder of the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin:
"The important thing in the Olympic games is not winning, but taking part.  The essential thing in life is not conquering, but fighting well."

This 4-3/4 inch by 3-1/2 inch card was tucked inside my Dad's Passport used in 1948, along with his return ticket to show what Berth he was staying in on the ship and the stamped landing card to indicate their arrival back into Halifax.  

Part of the opening ceremonies was the release of 7,000 pigeons.

This photo shows the crowds of people on the street outside Wembley Stadium.

This is a rare colour photograph of the Opening Ceremonies.

Needless to say, my Dad said he and his team mates were overwhelmed, in awe and excited to be part of the Opening Ceremonies.  Dad said he couldn't sleep that night as he was so wound up with excitement following such an incredible day.

The following video, while not in English, shows some of the Canadian Olympic Team at the 1:03 minute point .....

This following video is a montage of various video clips of the Opening Ceremonies.

I would like to mention Canada's 2012 Olympian, Mary Spencer, who is part of yet another Olympic historic moment with a female Boxing Event for the first time ever.  While Mary did not become an Olympic medal contender today, she is still a wonderful representative for Canada.  Way to go Mary!

My Dad at the 1948 London Olympics - Blog Day 10

The Canadian Olympic Team spent several weeks through July and August, 1948 at Uxbridge R.A.F. Camp which was one of three areas where the Canadian Olympians were billeted for their stay for the 1948 London Olympics.

Most of these photos today focus on the Swim Team since there is an abundance of photos of them in my Dad's personal photo collection.  Who knew that Swimmers and Boxers got along so well?!   Well, in an upcoming blog, you will see something else in common between the Swimmers and the Boxers at the 1948 London Olympics.

My Dad certainly seemed to take a shining to the swimmers    .......     as seen in the very first photo below where he is photographed with Canadian Swimmer, Joyce Court.

Canadian Swimmer, Joyce Court with my Dad.

Joyce Court

Here is Joyce Court again with my Dad's fellow boxing team mate, Joey Sandulo

This photo apparently took Dad two tries.  He has captioned the back of each of them with the same description which is:  "Irene Strong, Vivien King, Kay McNamee, Joyce Court at Uxbridge".

Yes, there were male swimmers as well on the Canadian Olympic Team, which was hard to tell with all the previous photos taken on Dad's camera; here in Uxbridge as well as on their ship crossing over from Canada to England.  Here is the entire Canadian Olympic Swimming Team below.

I personally prefer these more candid, relaxed poses versus the professional ones that were taken of each team. This would have been the set-up for the professional team photo.  I am a little intrigued by the cape-like wraps the female swimmers wore for their official team outfit.  

Dad has captioned the back of this photo, "Vivian King and Peter Mingie at Uxbridge".   Here you can see the cape a little better that was part of the female Olympic Swimmers' outfit.

There were other Canadian Olympic Teams staying onsite at Uxbridge in addition to the Boxing Team and the Swimming Team.

Dad has captioned this one, "Wrestler 123-1/2" (weight, just like the Boxers)

Professional Photo taken of the Canadian Women's Track Team

Professional Photo taken of the Canadian Men's Cycling Team


I would like to extend congratulations to Canada's Rosie McLennan on her achievement of our 1st Gold Medal at the 2012 London Olympics yesterday for Trampouline.  How good did that sound hearing Canada's National Anthem played for the world yesterday with Rosie on the podium?!

My Dad at the 1948 London Olympics - Blog Day 9

The Canadian Olympic Team's Boxing Team spent their time in England at the R.A.F. Camp in Uxbridge at the London 1948 Olympics.

Here is the entire Canadian Olympic Boxing Team ...........

.... and here is the "untouched" photo where I have not added the arrow to show Dad.

The caption Dad has written on the back of the above photo says "1948 TEAM".  This is a professional photograph with a stamp on the back that reads:   "Supplied by CENTRAL PRESS PHOTOS LTD. Incorporating - Central News Illustrations Service, 119, Fleet Street, London, E.C. 4"

The following article appeared in The Montreal Daily Star .... again I added the second photo to show where Dad is in the training group in Uxbridge.

The darker markings on the newspaper clippings is where the articles were taped into Dad's scrapbook.  Dad has a very large scrapbook with all of his original news clippings in it from his entire Boxing career.  I made photocopies for my brother, Len and I, many years ago.

This photo is not captioned, but shows Dad posing at Uxbridge.

This photo is also not captioned, but shows Joey Ssndulo in a similar style of pose.

Armand Savoie posing in his official boxing gear.

Dad has captioned this photo above, "U.S.A. Boxers F. Sodano 112, B. Bassio 118 sparring at Uxbridge"

The numbers refer to their weights.  This would have been what Dad was watching when he made the comments in the above news article regarding the competition.

My Dad at the 1948 London Olympics - Blog Day 8

Despite the Canadian Olympic Team spending seven days on the R.M.S. Aquitania to cross the Atlantic together, bound for the 1948 London Olympics, today is the final blog dedicated to the photos taken during the Trans-Atlantic journey.  

As their ship, the R.M.S. Aquitania came closer to land, the photos illustrate the excitement of the Canadian Olympic team athletes; pointing to landmarks in the Southampton Sea Port.  There are several photos in Dad's collection of individual ships that they see in the Port.  Here are a couple of such photos.

This photo is captioned, "Queen Elizabeth at Southampton Dock" (referring to the ship).

This would be another view, and showing the athletes taking in all the sights of Southampton.  Dad's caption reads, "Southampton Docks - Queen Elizabeth in background".

This photo is captioned, "Ferry from Southampton to Liverpool".

These are three of the Canadian Basketball players (two are named on the back:   Reid Mitchell and Ole Bakken).  The Canadian team is on shore and about to embark on the train which will take them into London.   Rolled up shirt sleeves and sunglasses is evident of nice weather for their arrival into England.

For many of the Canadian Olympic Team, their "home-away-from-home" was what the team mates referred to as the Uxbridge Dormitory.  They were billeted in the R.A.F. Camp in Uxbridge.

Dad's caption on the back of this above photo reads, "Uxbridge Dormitory, All Nations flags and Olympian flag".

Another view of Uxbridge Dormitory.

The caption for this photo is "Ken. Goff. Faul's Trainer.   Gord Grayson.   Adam Faul.  at Uxbridge"

While the athletes arrive into their Dorms in London, preparations are under way to convert existing buildings into Olympic-related services. 

Wembley Stadium can be seen in the background.

My Dad at the 1948 London Olympics - Blog Day 7

Here are more of my Dad's photos taken of the Canadian Olympic Team as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean together to get to the 1948 Olympic Games in London.   Any captions shown in quotation marks are taken from my father's writing on the back of the photos.

Dad is hamming it up for the camera with a team mate.

Dad at Sunset on the High Seas

Rowers Training on ship

"Fencers Training on Ship"

Dad's caption reads:  "B.B. Players Training on Ship"

Caption:  "Wrestler ...F. Payette

Weightlifter  J. Sklar in air

on ship"

"Wrestlers:  M. Plumb, M. Vachon on ship"

"Bill Larochelle Track 440 Hurdles on ship"

"Diana Foster, Track, on ship"

"On Board Aquitania"

"Rough Water"

""Sunset on the Sea"