Thomas Dow "Tyke" Richardson OBE (16 January 1887 – 7 January 1971) was a British competitive

pair skater Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating a ...

, author and judge. With his wife, Mildred Richardson, he represented

Great Britain at the 1924 Winter Olympics The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed as Great Britain at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France. Based on medal count, this was Great Britain's best ever performance at a Winter Olympic Games until the 2014 games ...

, where they placed 8th. He was elected to the

World Figure Skating Hall of Fame The World Figure Skating Hall of Fame serves as a repository for the sport of figure skating. The World Figure Skating Hall of Fame is where the greatest names in the history of the sport are honored. It is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, ...

posthumously in 1976.

Personal life

Richardson was born in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and died in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He was educated at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

where he was an outstanding oarsman and boxer, and was married to his former ice skating partner Mildred "Wag" Allingham, who survived him on his death. He served in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, attaining the rank of Captain.

Competitive career

He first learned the English style of skating, but was soon attracted to the International Style, to which he contributed greatly throughout his life. He took lessons from Bernard Adams, the first great British skating teacher of the International Style, and from Bror Meyer of Sweden. He eventually earned his gold medal in the International Style and the bronze medal in the English Style. T.D Richardson first took to the ice in 1891 at the age of four, during the winter known as 'the great frost'. He began skating pairs in 1911 with his future wife, Mildred Allingham, and together they made a substantial contribution to the development of modern pair skating, particularly in the unique form of "mirror" or shadow skating. After active service in

on the Western Front, Richardson resumed competing with his wife. They were the 1923 British silver medalists and competed at the

1924 Winter Olympic Games The 1924 Winter Olympics, officially known as the I Olympic Winter Games (french: Iers Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Chamonix 1924 ( frp, Chamôni 1924), were a winter multi-sport event which was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France ...

Judging and publishing career

The Richardsons became active judges, both reaching the rank of

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, N ...

(ISU) Championship (World) Judge. They also served as referees and judged many national and international championships. Richardson was a judge at the

1927 World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion. Men's competitions took place from February 5th to 6th ...

and 1928 Winter Olympic Games. He was also instrumental in obtaining the adoption by the

of a rule limiting a country to one judge in each event in which it has entries. During the 1920s, Richardson carried out the research that culminated in his famous book, ''Modern Figure Skating'', first published in 1930. This book represented his revolutionary concept of the "''Theory of the Sixteen Positions''" in

compulsory figures Compulsory figures or school figures were formerly a segment of figure skating, and gave the sport its name. They are the "circular patterns which skaters trace on the ice to demonstrate skill in placing clean turns evenly on round circles". For ...

. It was a fundamental and practical approach to the execution of

, which remained valid for many decades. He went on to write ten more books, of which ''The Art of Figure Skating'', published in 1962, reflected the mature development of his theories about

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are m ...

. He was the definitive reporter of the sport for many years as correspondent for

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

of London and Skating World magazine. Richardson long advocated the addition of new compulsory figures to the International schedule and established the Star Class Test in England, including the new compulsory figures. His proposals never gained international acceptance, however, a factor that contributed to the eventual disappearance of compulsory figures from international competition. In 1958 Richardson founded the Commonwealth Winter Games in

St Moritz St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in ...

, Switzerland, and served as chairman of the Games until his death. The Richardsons served the National Skating Association (now the National Ice Skating Association) of Great Britain in many capacities. Richardson was chairman of the Ice Figure Committee of the NSA for 11 years and was vice chairman of the NSA Council. He and his wife were elected to honorary life membership of the NSA in 1967, and Queen Elizabeth II appointed him an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to figure skating in 1955. On his death in 1971,

Cecilia Colledge Magdalena Cecilia Colledge (28 November 1920 – 12 April 2008) was a British figure skater. She was the 1936 Olympic silver medalist, the 1937 World Champion, the 1937–1939 European Champion, and a six-time (1935–1939, 1946) British n ...

, the great British, European and World Champion skater said of him: "He acted always for what he knew was right. He would not submerge his principles in order to be popular. He would not compromise in order to be elected. He would not curb his independent courage. He served skating."

References

External links

History of the National Ice Skating Association
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Thomas 1887 births 1971 deaths British Army personnel of World War I British male pair skaters Figure skaters at the 1924 Winter Olympics Olympic figure skaters of Great Britain Officers of the Order of the British Empire Sportspeople from York Alumni of the University of Cambridge Royal Army Service Corps officers Figure skating judges

Personal life

Competitive career

Judging and publishing career

Further reading

References

External links