John Lander (rower)

John Lander
Personal information
Birth name	John Gerard Heath Lander
Born	7 September 1907; Liverpool
Died	25 December 1941 (aged 34); Battle of Hong Kong
Sport
Sport	Rowing
Club	First Trinity Boat Club
Men's rowing
Representing Great Britain

John Gerard Heath Lander (7 September 1907 – 25 December 1941) was a British rower who competed at the 1928 Summer Olympics. He was killed in action during the Second World War.

Lander was born in Liverpool. He attended Shrewsbury School and was in the Shrewsbury crew that won the Ladies' Challenge Plate at Henley Royal Regatta in 1924. He then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he rowed for the First Trinity Boat Club. With Edward Vaughan Bevan, Richard Beesly and Michael Warriner, he won an Olympic gold medal in the coxless fours event rowing at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.^[1] They recorded a time of 6:36.0 in the final to beat the U.S. crew by 1 second. In 1929 Lander was expected to be included in the Cambridge crew in the Boat Race, but Richard Beesly, fellow gold medalist and the Cambridge President, called on Tom Brocklebank as stroke instead.

Upon leaving Cambridge, Lander took up a business appointment in Hong Kong. He was killed in the Battle of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941, the only British Olympic gold medallist to have been killed during World War II.^[2]

References

↑ Sports reference Olympic Sports – John Lander Archived 19 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
↑ "Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War". Sports Reference. Retrieved 24 July 2018.

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[1] Sports reference Olympic Sports – John Lander Archived 19 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine.

[WWII-2] "Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War". Sports Reference. Retrieved 24 July 2018.