Mary Peters (athlete)
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Full name | Mary Elizabeth Peters | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Halewood, Liverpool, England | 6 July 1939||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Lady Mary Elizabeth Peters, LG, CH, DBE (born 6 July 1939) is a Northern Irish former athlete and athletics administrator. She is best known as the 1972 Olympic champion in the pentathlon, for which she won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Peters was named as Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter on 27 February 2019. She was installed in St. George's Chapel, the chapel of the Order, on Garter Day, 17 June.
Early life and education
Peters was born in Halewood, Lancashire, but moved to Ballymena (and later Belfast) at age eleven when her father's job was relocated to Northern Ireland.[1] She now lives in Derriaghy, within the Lisburn and Castlereagh district, just outside Belfast.[2][3]
As a teenager, her father encouraged her athletic career by building her home practice facilities as birthday gifts. She qualified as a teacher and worked while training.
Athletics career
After Ballymena, the family moved to Portadown where she attended Portadown College. The headmaster Donald Woodman and PE teacher Kenneth McClelland introduced her to athletics with Mr McClelland her first coach. She was head girl of the school in 1956.
In the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Peters competing for Great Britain and Northern Ireland and won the gold medal in the women's pentathlon. She had finished 4th in 1964 and 9th in 1968. To win the gold medal, she narrowly beat the local favourite, West Germany's Heide Rosendahl, by 10 points, setting a world record score. After her victory, death threats were phoned into the BBC: "Mary Peters is a Protestant and has won a medal for Britain. An attempt will be made on her life and it will be blamed on the IRA ... Her home will be going up in the near future." But Peters insisted she would return home to Belfast. She was greeted by fans and a band at the airport and paraded through the city streets, but was not allowed back in her flat for three months. Turning down jobs in the US and Australia, where her father lived, she insisted on remaining in Northern Ireland.[1]
In 1972, Peters won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. "Peters, a 33-year-old secretary from Belfast, won Britain's only athletics gold at the Munich Olympics. The pentathlon competition was decided on the final event, the 200m, and Peters claimed the title by one-tenth of a second."[4]
She represented Northern Ireland at every Commonwealth Games between 1958 and 1974. In these games she won 2 gold medals for the pentathlon, plus a gold and silver medal for the shot put.
After athletics
Peters became a Trustee of The Outward Bound Trust in May 2001 and is Vice-President of the Northern Ireland Outward Bound Association. She is also Patron of Springhill Hospice in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
The Mary Peters Trust
Peters established a charitable Sports Trust in 1975 (now known as the Mary Peters Trust) to support talented young sportsmen and women, both able-bodied and disabled, from across Northern Ireland in a financial and advisory capacity. The trust has made a large number of awards and has list of well known alumni including Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Jonathan Rea, Darren Clarke, David Humphreys, Bethany Firth, Ryan Burnett, Carl Frampton, Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan, Kelly Gallagher, Michael McKillop, Dr Janet Gray.
Honours
Peters was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to athletics in the 1973 New Year Honours.[5] For services to sport, she was promoted in the same Order to Commander (CBE) in the 1990 Birthday Honours[6] and again to Dame Commander (DBE) in the 2000 Birthday Honours.[7] In the 2015 New Year Honours, she was awarded as Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH), also for services to sport and the community in Northern Ireland,[8][9] and in 2017, she was made a Dame of the Order of Saint John (DStJ).[10] Peters was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter (LG) on 27 February 2019, and therefore granted the title Lady.[11] She represented the Order at the 2023 coronation.[12]
Northern Ireland's premier athletics track, on the outskirts of Belfast, is named after her. A statue of her stands within it.[13]
In April 2009 she was named the Lord Lieutenant of the City of Belfast,[2] retiring from the post in 2014 when she was succeeded by Fionnuala Jay-O'Boyle.[14] Peters is a Freeman of the Cities of Lisburn[15] and Belfast.[16]
Arms
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References
- ^ a b Ian McCourt (22 May 2012). "50 stunning Olympic moments No32: Mary Peters wins gold in 1972". The Guardian. London.
- ^ a b "BBC NEWS: "Dame Mary now has regal role"". BBC News. 8 April 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2009.
- ^ a b c McNeilly, Claire (18 June 2019). "Queen's highest honour for Mary Peters". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "Sports Personality of the Year: Past Winners - 1969-73". BBC News. 2003. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
- ^ "No. 45860". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1972. pp. 12–16.
- ^ "No. 52173". The London Gazette. 15 June 1990. pp. 7–9.
- ^ "No. 55879". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 June 2000. p. 7.
- ^ "No. 61092". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2014. p. N28.
- ^ "2015 New Year Honours List" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
- ^ "Order of St John". Thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ "New appointments to the Order of the Garter announced". The Royal Family. 27 February 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
- ^ "Coronation order of service in full". BBC News. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
- ^ "Dame Mary Peters". From Pitch to Plinth.
- ^ "New Lord Lieutenant of Belfast Fionnuala Jay-O'Boyle is a force to be reckoned with". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- ^ "Civic honour for Mary". Lisburntoday.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
- ^ "Dame Mary Peters granted freedom of Belfast". BBC News. 2 November 2012.
- ^ "Garter Crests". heraldicsculptor.com. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
- ^ "Uploads:2019/06/24". portadowncollege.com. Archived from the original on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
External links
- 1939 births
- Living people
- People from Halewood
- Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley
- Sportspeople from Ballymena
- Athletes from Belfast
- British female shot putters
- Female athletes from Northern Ireland
- Shot putters from Northern Ireland
- Pentathletes from Northern Ireland
- Olympic athletes for Great Britain
- Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1968 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Northern Ireland
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Northern Ireland
- Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games
- Ladies Companion of the Garter
- Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour
- Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- Order of Saint John (chartered 1888)
- Deputy Lieutenants in Northern Ireland
- Sporting dames
- Lord-Lieutenants of Belfast
- BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners
- People educated at Portadown College
- Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Medallists at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Medallists at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games
- Medallists at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games
- Athletes from County Antrim