1928 Olympics: 100 metre final. Percy Williams is the runner 3rd from the right.

 

 

PERCY WILLIAMS – OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST

Percy Williams, one of Canada’s most celebrated athletes, was a student at King Edward High School.  After being stricken with rheumatic fever when he was 15, he was advised to avoid demanding physical activity. However, not wanting to avoid a school PE requirement, he began participating in track events, where he excelled in sprints. He graduated from King Ed in 1927.

In 1928, Williams made the Canadian Olympic team. Later that year, he won gold medals in the 100 metre and 200 metre sprints at the Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam. This was an extraordinary achievement, especially for someone who had suffered a serious illness and stood just 1.7 metres (5 ft 6 inches) tall and weighed 56 kilograms (123 lb.)

In 1930, Williams set a world record in the 100 metres sprint at a track meet in Toronto, and won the 100 yard dash at the British Empire Games in Hamilton, Ontario.

Despite suffering a pulled thigh muscle at the British Empire Games, Williams went on to compete in the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angles. He failed to make the finals in the 100 metre sprint but helped the Canadian 4 x 100 relay team to a 4th place finish. This race proved to be his last.

Back in Vancouver, Williams became an insurance agent. He died in 1982 after enduring years of pain from osteoarthritis.

 

OTHER NOTABLE KING EDWARD ALUMNI

• Cecil Green (a geophysicist who was a founder of Texas Instruments, a global semiconductor design & manufacturing company.)
• Red Robinson (the first disk jockey to play rock and roll music in Vancouver.)
• Jack Wasserman (a nightlife and celebrity columnist for the Vancouver Sun newspaper from 1949 until his death in 1977.)
• Grace McCarthy (BC Cabinet Minister.)
• Peggy Middleton, later known by her stage name, Yvonne De Carlo (she became an internationally famous Hollywood film star in the 1940s and 5os.)
• Arthur Lord (he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of B.C.)