About Wyndham Halswelle
Wyndham Halswelle (30 May 1882 – 31 March 1915) was a British athlete. He won the controversial 400 m race at the 1908 Summer Olympics, becoming the only athlete to win an Olympic title by a walkover. Halswelle was also an infantry officer who served in the Second Boer War and World War I. He was killed by a sniper at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915. == Early life == Born in London to London-born, Edinburgh-trained artist Keeley Halswelle and Helen Marianna Elizabeth Gordon, he is nonetheless usually referred to as being Scottish, the nationality of his maternal grandfather, General Nathaniel J. Gordon. Wyndham Halswelle had a notable athletic career at Charterhouse School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, before being commissioned into the Highland Light Infantry as a second lieutenant on 8 January 1901. Serving in South Africa in 1902 for the Second Boer War, Halswelle's ability was recognised by Jimmy Curran, a coach and amateur athlete. Halswelle returned to his regiment in January 1903, and was with the 1st battalion as they left South Africa for Egypt the same month. It was Curran who persuaded Halswelle to take up athletics seriously when his regiment returned to Edinburgh in 1904. == Domestic athletics == In 1904 he was army champion for 880 yards, and in 1905 he won the Scottish and AAA 440 yard (402 m) titles. In the 1906 Athens Intercalated Olympics, he achieved a silver medal in the 400 metres and a bronze in the 800 metres.
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