Opening Wembley’s Olympic Games, 75 years ago today – 29th July 1948

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

 

1. Local club athletes escorting the Olympic Torch through Wembley Park. (Source: Brent Archives)

Today marks the 75^th anniversary of the opening ceremony of the 1948 Summer Olympic Games, which was held at Wembley Stadium, so I thought you might like to get a flavour of that day. The lighting of the Olympic flame was actually the climax of the ceremony, so I will start at the beginning.

 

2.     Opening Ceremony programme. (Source: Brent Archives)

 

The ceremony began at 2.30pm, and all the tickets had been sold, so people began arriving for the event well before it started. Most came along the recently opened Olympic Way.

 

3.     Crowds heading to the stadium for the Opening Ceremony, 29 July 1948. (Source: Brent Archives)

 

The ceremony got underway with the teams from the 59 nations taking part in the Games entering the stadium. Greece, as the originator of the ancient games, led the way, followed by the others in alphabetical order, with Great Britain, as the hosts, bringing up the rear.

 

4.     The Czechoslovakian team parading round the athletics track, followed by Denmark.
(Screenshot from a colour film of the 1948 Olympic Games)

 

Each team was led by a Boy Scout from a Wembley troop, carrying a banner with the nation’s name. Other local scouts were sitting on the grass beside the track, ready to play their part later in the afternoon. 

 

5.     The teams assembled in the centre of the stadium. (Screenshot from a colour film)

 

As the teams reached the back straight, they were guided into position, so that they formed columns behind their name and flag. All 59 national flags were also flying from flagpoles around the top of the stadium, as they would throughout the Games. It was a hot and sunny afternoon, and the temperature in the centre of the stadium was around 35ºc. The first casualty of the Games was the scout holding the banner for Bermuda, who feinted and had to be helped by local St John’s Ambulance Brigade first aiders. Another scout was brought in to take his place.

 

6.     King George VI declares the Games open. (Image from the internet)

 

At 4pm, King George VI, who had taken the salute from the Royal Box as the teams paraded past, declared the fourteenth Olympiad of the modern era open. The Boy Scouts around the track then released 7.000 pigeons from wicker baskets The pigeons, symbolising peace, circled the stadium several times to get their bearings, then flew away to their home roosts.

 

7.     Some of the pigeons flying above the stadium. (Screenshot from a colour film)

 

Anticipation was now rising, as the Olympic torch relay, which had begun at Mount Olympus in Greece 12 days earlier, was nearing the stadium. The torch had arrived at Dover the previous evening, and runners had carried it through the night, along a route designed for it to arrive at the stadium at 4.07pm!

 

 8.     Map of the torch relay route, from a 28 July newspaper. (Source: Brent Archives)

 

Large crowds of local people, and a 21-gun salute (which helped to scare the pigeons away from the stadium!), had greeted the Olympic torch as it was carried up Olympic Way. The relay torch (later given to the Mayor of Wembley, and now in Brent Museum) was used to light the ceremonial torch which took the flame into the stadium.

 

9.     The Olympic torch relay on its final leg up Olympic Way. (Image from the internet)

 

A Cambridge University athlete, John Mark, had the honour of carrying the torch into the stadium. After a steady run around the track, with the 80,000 crowd and several thousand competitors watching him, he ran up a short ramp and lit the Olympic flame.

 

10.  John Mark lighting the Olympic flame at Wembley. (Image from the internet)

 

A massed choir sang the Olympic hymn, and then the flag-bearers from the 59 competing nations gathered round a rostrum, from which Donald Finlay, the Great Britain team captain, took the Olympic oath. On behalf of all the competitors, he swore to take part in the Games ‘in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams.^’

 

11.    Donald Finlay taking the Olympic oath at the Opening Ceremony. (Image from the internet)

 

The Opening Ceremony concluded, and the stadium was made ready for the start of the athletics events the following day. 

 

12.  The Starter, getting athletes “set” for a heat of the 100 metres on 30 July.
(Screenshot from a colour film)

 

“Wembley’s 1948 Olympic Games” had begun! I wrote a short piece earlier this month about an illustrated talk with that title I was giving. I will be presenting the talk again at a Brent Libraries “coffee morning” event, at Ealing Road Library on Tuesday 3 October, 11am to 12noon. If you are interested, and are free that day, you will be very welcome to come along. Check the Brent Culture Service Eventbrite site nearer the time, to reserve your place.

Philip Grant.