<\/p>
\u201cWhen I discovered that one of my relatives was an Olympic cycling gold medallist I couldn\u2019t believe my luck,” says Sid Payne from Wimborne, Dorset.<\/p>
Sid\u2019s second cousin three times removed was Ernest Payne, who was born in 1884 in a cottage at Red Hill, Worcester. His parents were gardener John Payne and his wife Annie Morris.<\/p>
\u201cErnest\u2019s talent was first noticed at Worcester St John\u2019s Cycling Club, on a bicycle borrowed from his brother Walter. A successful racer himself, Walter became Ernest\u2019s trainer alongside Arthur Hale, whose brother Frederick was a racing cyclist too.<\/p>
\u201cSt John\u2019s archives are a treasure trove of information and photographs. Between 1902 and 1903 Ernest represented the club in 14 amateur cycling events, racing to victory in 13 of them. He was a full-time carpenter, but trained hard in his spare time.<\/p>
\u201cBy 1903, the Cyclist<\/em> magazine was referring to him as \u2018the Worcester Wonder\u2019. That year, Ernest competed in the prestigious Challenge Cup held in Bath and took it, all four feet of silver, home to Worcester.\u201d<\/p> Ernest led the team to victory with his pace-making over the last two laps<\/p><\/blockquote> Old newspapers<\/a> recorded the jubilation of the spectators: \u201cExcitement was intense and a great crowd rushed on to the track and carried Payne shoulder high to the pavilion. From the station to his home at Red Hill, the popular cyclist had a triumphal progress.\u201d<\/p> Further glory came at the National Cycling Union championships in 1905 where Ernest became \u2018Champion of England\u2019, a title he retained for three years. In 1906 he took second place at the Grand Prix de Paris, after racing in Birmingham on Saturday afternoon and travelling to France overnight for the Sunday race.<\/p> \u201cErnest\u2019s greatest achievement was his victory at the London Summer Olympics in 1908. He was selected to ride for Great Britain in the team pursuit, with Benjamin Jones, Clarence Kingsbury and Leonard Meredith.<\/p> \u201cThe event comprised three laps of the 660-yard track at London\u2019s White City Stadium. Ernest\u2019s team had an easy run in the heats and semi-final, beating Belgium and Canada respectively.<\/p> \u201cThe final took place on 17 July inside a packed stadium. Ernest led the team to victory with superb pace-making over the last two laps, and they beat Germany by 10 seconds. I can only imagine the deafening roar of the home crowd as Ernest crossed the finishing line, winning gold.\u201d<\/p> It was a hectic time for Ernest. His wife Dorothy \u2013 Arthur and Frederick\u2019s sister \u2013 had given birth to their daughter Barbara only three days before his triumph.<\/p> In the years that followed, Ernest also enjoyed a successful career as a footballer, playing for Manchester United and Worcester City. \u201cHe scored a goal for Manchester United in only his second match for the club.<\/p> \u201cMysteriously, his gold medal disappeared after the First World War<\/a>, in which he served as a motorcycle dispatch rider. It was our last Olympic gold in the event for 100 years, until Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins raced to victory in Beijing in 2008.\u201d<\/p> Ernest died in 1961, and his second wife Emily donated his memorabilia to St John\u2019s Cycling Club. There is also a very public tribute to him: he is immortalised in a sculpture beside a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Severn at Diglis, near St John\u2019s.<\/p> \u201cWe are so proud of Ernest\u2019s achievements. My son Christian has just named his own son \u2018Lucas Ernest Payne\u2019 in his honour.\u201d<\/p> Sid Payne runs a Facebook page<\/a> about Ernest. Please contact him if you also have a link to the cyclist.<\/em><\/p> Share your family hero with us and they could appear in the magazine. Each month we\u2019ll award our favourite a year\u2019s Pro subscription to Findmypast<\/a> worth \u00a3159.99. Contact us today<\/a>! By Gail Dixon Published: Tuesday, 21 November 2023 at 14:17 PM \u201cWhen I discovered that one of my relatives was an Olympic cycling gold medallist I couldn\u2019t believe my luck,” says Sid Payne from Wimborne, Dorset. Sid\u2019s second cousin three times removed was Ernest Payne, who was born in 1884 in a cottage at Red […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":29240,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/my-relation-won-a-gold-medal-at-the-1908-olympics.png",2732,2048,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/my-relation-won-a-gold-medal-at-the-1908-olympics-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/my-relation-won-a-gold-medal-at-the-1908-olympics-300x225.png",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/my-relation-won-a-gold-medal-at-the-1908-olympics-768x576.png",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/my-relation-won-a-gold-medal-at-the-1908-olympics-1024x768.png",800,600,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/my-relation-won-a-gold-medal-at-the-1908-olympics-1536x1151.png",1536,1151,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/my-relation-won-a-gold-medal-at-the-1908-olympics-2048x1535.png",2048,1535,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Gail Dixon Published: Tuesday, 21 November 2023 at 14:17 PM \u201cWhen I discovered that one of my relatives was an Olympic cycling gold medallist I couldn\u2019t believe my luck,” says Sid Payne from Wimborne, Dorset. Sid\u2019s second cousin three times removed was Ernest Payne, who was born in 1884 in a cottage at Red…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/29239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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