Harry Edward

Harry Edward

Harry Edward in 1922
Personal information
Born	15 April 1898 Berlin, Germany
Died	8 July 1973 (aged 75) Augsburg, Germany
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	100 m, 200 m
Club	Polytechnic Harriers, London
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	100 m – 10.8 (1920) 200 m – 21.5 (1920)
Medal record Representing Great Britain Olympic Games 1920 Antwerp 100 metres 1920 Antwerp 200 metres

Harry Francis Vincent Edward (15 April 1898 – 8 July 1973) was a German-British runner. He represented the UK and competed in the 100 and 200 m 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, winning bronze medals in both events. He was the first black person to gain Olympic medals. Because he injured himself during the 200 m final, he withdrew from the 4 × 100 m relay. Within the UK Edward won the AAA championships in the 100 yd and 220 yd in 1920–1922, and in 1922 also took the 440 yd title.

Born to Guyanese and German parents, and raised in Berlin, Edward was classified as an alien and prisoner-of-war because of his father's birth in British Guiana. Neither the father nor the children could be naturalized in Prussia. Edward was imprisoned from 1915 to 1918; then he emigrated to the United Kingdom.

Invited to compete at Yankee Stadium, Edward emigrated to the United States in 1923. Settling in New York, he participated in the Harlem Renaissance and the political and cultural milieu.

Personal life

Born in Berlin, Harry Edward was the only son of a Guyanese father and German mother, a Prussian piano teacher. His father as a child had moved to Dominica with his family. He started working as a ship's cabin boy and crossed the Atlantic Ocean. He stayed in Germany, where he first worked in a circus. Later he was the maitre d' in Berlin restaurants.

Edward had one sister, Irene. Brought up and educated in Germany, he spoke English, German and French. He also was noted for his athletic and academic abilities.

Because of the father's foreign birth in British Guiana, neither he nor the children were able to gain citizenship in Prussia/Germany. The nation did not have a process of naturalization for immigrants. When the First World War started, from 1915 the younger Edward was classified as an alien and imprisoned as a prisoner of war at Ruhleben internment camp in Germany for the majority of the war.

Initially Edward could participate in sports days and made lasting friendships. Conditions became poor in the camp, especially towards the end of the war as Germany's losses accumulated. The food was worse, as was the attitude of the Germans to the prisoners.

After being released, Edward emigrated to England, settling in London. With qualifications from the camp, he became a teacher of French and German. He also became involved in track competition. (See below for athletic career.)

Edward married twice: in 1922 to Antoinette (Kohler) Regner, a Swiss national who had a son. The marriage failed in 1931 after he had emigrated to the United States in 1923. He married again, to Gladys Hirst in 1938. They had a son together.

In 1973 Edward died in Germany after suffering a heart attack when visiting his sister there.

Athletic career

In June 1914, when Edward was 16, he competed in an athletics meeting held in the stadium built for the 1916 Olympics. He won the 200m and placed second in the 100m to the German champion.

Edward was held in a prisoner of war camp, because he, like his father, was considered an alien from a British colony. After Edward was released from the camp in late 1918, he emigrated to Great Britain. In London, because he had gained qualifications while in the camp, he became a teacher of German and French.

He also became involved with amateur athletics again. He was successful at his first track meeting at Stamford Bridge. He was so successful at the sprint events at the Amateur Athletics Association meeting in 1920 that he was selected for the 100m, 200m and sprint relay team at the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games. He reached the final of the 100m and 200m and gained a bronze medal in both, becoming the first black person to gain an Olympic medal. The start of the 100m race was confused, and several competitors left at the starting line.

Edward competed in British AAA meetings in 1921 and 1922. He won many races, including ones he was invited to enter. In 1922, in the main AAA meeting, he gained first place in the 100, 200 and 400-yard finals, although the finals in each of these races were run within one hour. This achievement has never been superseded. His success was congratulated in person by King George V.

In 1923 Edward was invited to compete at New York's Yankee Stadium so he emigrated to the USA for its opportunities. However his athletics performance in the USA was less successful.

Life in the United States

He moved to Philadelphia, returning to New York City after he had divorced and remarried. He initially worked at the Federal Theatre Project as an administrator. In 1936 his group produced the first staging of Macbeth with a black cast; it was directed by John Houseman and Orson Welles.

During the Second World War Edward worked for the Office of Price Administration and organised rationing. When the war ended, he worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and was sent to Greece.

He subsequently worked for the New York City Employment Office until he retired in the late 1960s. He continued as a volunteer, including working abroad. He went to Vietnam to initiate a US-sponsored foster-children programme. He also greeted and worked with dignitaries visiting the UN and the New York mayor's office.

Legacy

The Harry Edward Papers, including correspondence, photographs, and other personal papers, are curated at the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans. They include his unpublished memoir When I Passed the Statue of Liberty I Became Black, which was effectively lost for decades. For a more complete description, see the finding aid for the collection.

The memoir was rediscovered by scholar Neil Duncanson in the Edward papers. He edited the memoir, which was published by Yale University Press in 2024.

External links

• The remarkable story of Harry Edward: Britain’s first black Olympian in The Guardian