Wales at the 1930 Commonwealth Games
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Wales at the 1930 Commonwealth Games was abbreviated WAL. They have competed in every edition of the Commonwealth Games. In the first edition, just 11 teams took part and of them, 5 other countries have also competed in every edition since then.
Wales came 7th overall in the games, with 2 silver medals and 1 bronze. All three medals were won by the female swimmer Valerie Davies.
Wales was not invited to send an athletics team to the games. This was probably due to the structure of Welsh athletics at the time. Various English regional associations governed the sport in Wales with no Welsh national association in existence. It should be noted that reigning Welsh champion Reg Thomas competed as a member of the English team. He won the mile and placed second in the 880yds.
Contents |
[edit] Medals
 |
 |
 |
 |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Wales |
0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
[edit] Gold
None
[edit] Silver
- Valerie Davies - Swimming - Womens 100 Yards Backstroke
- Valerie Davies - Swimming - Womens 440 Yards Freestyle
[edit] Bronze
- Valerie Davies - Swimming - Womens 100 Yards Freestyle
[edit] See also
| Nations at the 1930 British Empire Games in Hamilton, Canada |
| Australia | Bermuda | British Guiana | Canada | England | New Zealand | Newfoundland | Ireland | Scotland | South Africa | Wales |
 |
Wales at the Commonwealth Games |  |
|---|---|---|
| 1930 | 1934 | 1938 | 1950 | 1954 | 1958 | 1962 | 1966 | 1970 | 1974 | 1978 | 1982 | 1986 | 1990 | 1994 | 1998 | 2002 | 2006 | 2010 | ||
Reg Thomas (Royal Air Force) 1907-1946, by Clive Williams
Reg Thomas is probably the least known of all Welsh athletics stars because he was regarded by many as being English!
Born in Pembroke Dock on 11th January 1907, he joined the RAF as an apprentice following the completion of his education at Coronation School, and went on to win the mile for England in the inaugural Empire (now Commonwealth) Games in Hamilton, Ontario in 1930. He also took the silver in the half mile. As a result of this his peers regarded him as an Englishman. But he never forgot his roots and returned to compete in Wales at every opportunity, winning a total of eight Welsh titles between 1929 and 1936: His Welsh championships wins are as follows:
1929 ½ mile 1:58.6 Cardiff Arms Park (Rugby Gd) Mile 4:27.0 Cardiff Arms Park (Rugby Gd) 1930 ½ mile 2:00.0 Pontypool (Polo Grounds) Mile 4:26.0 Pontypool (Polo Grounds) 1931 ½ mile 2:01.6 Pontypool Park Mile 4:31.8 Pontypool Park 1933 Mile 4:17.2 Abercarn 1936 Mile 4:21.4 Newport (Rodney Parade)
He ran for England in the 1930 Empire Games because Wales were not invited to send an athletics team, but if they had have done, he most certainly would have been selected for Wales. At the time, various English Counties governed Welsh athletics. South and west Wales were controlled by the Southern Counties of the AAA, and as such, for representative purposes were therefore part of England who duly claimed Welsh athletes as their own.
An invitation was forthcoming for the next Games and the Empire Games Council for Wales were formed in 1933 in order to organise Welsh participation in the 1934 White City Games. Whilst selected for Wales in the 3 miles he never actually ran because England complained and apparently refused permission for him run for Wales. Current Hon. Secretary of the Commonwealth Games Council for Wales, Myrddin John MBE says that Wales protested to the Empire Games Federation, but the outcome is not known.
He ran in two Olympic Games - the 1928 Amsterdam Games, and in 1932 in Los Angeles. He went into the Amsterdam Games as runner-up in the AAA mile, but could do no better than 4th in his heat of the 1,500m. He won the AAA mile in 1930, 1931 and 1933, and, given he was the reigning Empire Champion (4:14.0) went into the Los Angeles Games as one of the favourites for the 1,500m. However, he ran suffering from an achilles tendon injury and was limping early in his heat and was forced to drop out. In fact his career was plagued with achilles tendon problems, and this had an effect on his performances and injury prevented him from competing in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
When he returned home to Pembroke Dock a few months after winning the 1930 AAA mile in the second fastest time recorded in the Championships (4:15.2), he was given a civic welcome in a ceremony presided over by the Mayor of Pembroke Dock, Major J.L. Adams at his old school. In this race, he defeated the eventual gold and silver medallists in Los Angeles, Luigi Beccali (Italy) and Jerry Cornes (Achilles), the AAA title winner in 1932, providing further evidence that if fully fit in Los Angeles, he would have been challenging for the gold.
Probably his finest race came in the British Games held on Chelsea FC’s ground at Stamford Bridge – the main British athletics venue at the time - on 25th May 1931. Reputedly, 50,000 people had crowded into the ground, probably to see the flying Finn, Paavo Nurmi, winner of nine Olympic titles, and the current world record holder for the mile with 4:10.4, run in an invitation 4 miles in which he disappointed in finishing only fourth.
However, Thomas, ran the race of his life in the mile to clip 4-tenths off Albert Hill’s British record which had stood for ten years with a new record of 4:13.4. His run was all the more remarkable as the grass track was wet after weekend rain and he had little opposition in the closing stages. He went straight into the lead at the gun passing 440 yds in 61.2, and the half-mile in 2:04 finishing over 200 yards clear. Hill, the 1920 Olympic 1,500m Champion, who was spectating, was one of the first to congratulate him. Many people at the time felt that if the conditions had have been more favourable, and with better opposition, he would have come close to Nurmi’s world record.
Although his best mile time was that 4:13.4 at Stamford Bridge, official Welsh records at the time had to be set in Wales, and his win on July 22nd in the 1933 Welsh Championships on the Welfare Ground in Abercarn in 4:17.2, was classed in the Principality as the official Welsh record at the time. However, statisticians regard his Stamford Bridge run as a Welsh record and this stood as a Welsh best until beaten by his arch rival, Jim Alford of Roath Harriers when winning the 1938 Sydney Empire Games Mile in 4:11.5.
Thomas never ran against Alford in a Welsh championship, but they ran against each other off scratch in a mile handicap at Taff Vale Park, Pontypridd in 1937, with Alford winning in a time classed as an official Welsh record of 4:17.1, clipping just a tenth off Thomas’s Abercarn best. His best times in other events were: 800m: 1:53.6 in 1929 and 1937; 1,500: 3:53.5 in 1937; 2miles 9:26.6 in 1931 and 3 miles: 14:53.4 when winning the Southern Championships in Portsmouth in 1935.
He competed for the RAF for most of his career and in all won eleven RAF titles including the mile title a record eight times between 1927 and 1937, setting Welsh records in 1927 (4:27.8) and 4:20.2 (1928). He is also one of the very few Welsh athletes to have set a world record, being part of the British 4 x 1,500m team which clocked 15:55.6 in winning against Germany in Cologne on 30th August 1931. Altogether he ran 14 times for Great Britain, winning three individual events (800m against France in Paris 1929 in his best 800m time of 1:53.6; and the mile against France (4:20.4) and Germany (4:17.8) in 1933. He was also part of winning British relay teams on a further four occasions. He captained the British team in 1933. Due to his service commitments abroad, he missed many opportunities to improve on his times, although he returned as often as possible to run in the RAF Championships. He was stationed in Egypt from 1934 until 1937, but on his return he finished fifth in the AAA mile in 1937.
He was determined to win a Welsh international vest, and this he did when he ran for Wales in the 1939 international cross country championship, held coincidentally on Ely Racecourse Cardiff when he finished a lowly 44th. He secured his place in the Welsh team by finishing 6th in the Welsh championships of that year held on Caerleon Racecourse in a race won by fellow RAF serviceman, Dillan Hier.
As with many athletes at the time, the Second World War put paid to his competitive activity and tragically, after the war had ended, the Lancaster bomber he was piloting crashed into a Roman Catholic Nursing Home on the outskirts of Brownshill village, near Stroud on 14th March 1946. He was just 39. An inquest heard that it was only the supreme efforts of Squadron Leader Thomas saved the Lancaster from devastating the village. He was a hero to the end.
This article first appeared in The History of Welsh Athletics, published in 2000.
