Bevis Maria Anael Shergold (, 13 June 1919 - 4 July 1997) was a British track and field athlete who competed in the

1938 European Athletics Championships The 2nd European Athletics Championships was a continental athletics competition for European athletes which was held in two places in 1938. The men's event took place in Paris, France between 3–5 September while the women's events were in Vie ...

and the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...

Biography

Reid was a member of the Mitcham Athletics Club in London. By the time she was 19 years old she had unofficially broken the British record in the discus and the

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling ...

. She competed in both the

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

and the discus at the

held in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, finishing in fifth place in the shot put and eighth place in the discus. Due to the war Reid had to wait ten years before she could compete in the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

, where she threw 35.84 metres in the discus and finished in 14th place. She fared better in the

, finishing in third place in the qualifying round, but could only throw 12.170 metres in the final to finish in eighth place. Reid won the national shot put title (two-hand aggregate, 8lb shot) at the

WAAA Championships The WAAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Women's Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA) in England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event for women during its lifetime. Since 1880, the Amateur Athl ...

on six occasions and was five times national discus champion. In addition she also won the javelin title at the 1948 WAAA Championships. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

she was an intelligence servicewoman and was one of the first women to be posted aboard. She worked in Egypt and

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

as a translator during the interrogation of POWs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Bevis 1919 births 1997 deaths British female shot putters British female discus throwers British female javelin throwers Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1948 Summer Olympics Athletes from Edinburgh