Eric Henry Liddell was born on 16 January 1902 in Tianjin, China, the son of London Missionary Society parents. Educated at Eltham College and Edinburgh University, he became the first Scot to run the 100 yards in 9.7 seconds and was selected for the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.
The 100-metre heats fell on a Sunday. Liddell — a devout Congregationalist — refused to run and was publicly derided in the British press. He was reassigned to the 400 metres, an event for which he had barely trained. On 11 July 1924 he ran the final in 47.6 seconds — a world and Olympic record that stood for 12 years — and won gold.
He returned to China in 1925 as a missionary teacher at the Anglo-Chinese College, Tianjin. When the Japanese army interned all foreign nationals in 1943, Liddell was sent to Weihsien Camp in Shandong. He organised the camp school, refereed sports and cared for the sick. He died there on 21 February 1945, aged 43, of an inoperable brain tumour — five months before the American liberation of Weihsien.
The 1981 film Chariots of Fire dramatised the Sunday race and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Liddell's grave at the Weifang Zhonglou (former Weihsien Camp) is marked by an Isle of Mull granite memorial stone erected in 1991 by Edinburgh University.