James "Jumping Jim" Halliday (19 January 1918 – 6 June 2007) was a

weightlifter Weightlifting or weight lifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells, barbells or machines. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can ...

from

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

Weightlifting career

He competed for Great Britain in 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 ...

held in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, United Kingdom in the lightweight event where he finished third behind the winner, the outstanding Egyptian lifter

Ibrahim Shams Ibrahim Hassanien Shams (; January 16, 1917 – January 16, 2001) was an Egyptian weightlifter who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics and in the 1948 Summer Olympics. He was born in Alexandria. In 1936 he won the bronze medal in the f ...

. He represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and won a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

in the -67.5 kg division at the

1950 British Empire Games The 1950 British Empire Games were the fourth staging of what is now called the Commonwealth Games. It was held in Auckland, New Zealand, between 4 and 11 February 1950, after a 12-year gap from the third edition of the games. A documentary fil ...

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand. Four years later he repeated the feat by winning another gold medal at the

1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games The 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, from 30 July to 7 August 1954. This was the fifth edition of the event that would eventually become known as the Commonwealth Games, the second post-war G ...

in Vancouver, Canada.

Personal life

Halliday's participation was remarkable as he had been a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

in the Far East from 1942 to 1945 having been captured when Singapore fell to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. During his imprisonment, he managed to lift a barbell (which had been made from wood) over his head, something which the other British prisoners (or the Japanese guards) could not manage. As a result of this, the Japanese commander cut the British prisoners' food rations as he believed they were getting too strong. He had weighed little more than 6 stone (38 kg) after three years as a PoW, including working on the Burma Railway. Halliday subsequently won two British Empire titles in 1950 and 1954. He worked on the coal gang at Kearsley Power Station and later became the Electricity Board's chief safety officer, travelling around the country lecturing men on how to lift heavy bags or dig holes.

References

1918 births English male weightlifters Olympic weightlifters for Great Britain Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Weightlifters at the 1948 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 1952 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Weightlifters at the 1950 British Empire Games Weightlifters at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Farnworth 2007 deaths Olympic medalists in weightlifting British Army personnel of World War II British World War II prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Japan Burma Railway prisoners Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Medallists at the 1950 British Empire Games Medallists at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games 20th-century English sportsmen Commonwealth Games gold medallists in weightlifting {{UK-weightlifting-bio-stub