James Halliday (weightlifter)

He competed for Great Britain in the 1948 Summer Olympics held in London, United Kingdom in the lightweight event where he finished third behind the winner, the outstanding Egyptian lifter Ibrahim Shams.[1]

He represented England and won a gold medal in the -67.5kg division at the 1950 British Empire Games in Auckland, New Zealand.[2][3] Four years later he repeated the feat by winning another gold medal at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada.[2]

Halliday's participation was remarkable as he had been a prisoner of war 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.