Reg Thomas was the first winner of the Empire Games Mile title when he won in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1930. He also won the silver medal in the 880 yards. The only problem was he had to run for England at those inaugural Games.
The Pembroke-born Thomas had to run for England in Canada because Wales were not invited to send an athletics team. At the time, various English Counties governed Welsh athletics. South and west Wales were controlled by the Southern Counties of the AAA and, for representative purposes, were therefore part of England, who duly claimed Welsh athletes as their own.
Wales sent swimmers and bowlers to Canada and the Empire Games Council for Wales was formed in 1933. It meant Wales was able to compete in a wider range of sports at the 1934 Games in London. Thomas was duly selected for Wales in the 3 miles, but never actually ran because England complained and apparently refused permission for him to represent the country of his birth. Wales protested to the Empire Games Federation, but the outcome is unknown.
Born in Pembroke Dock on 11January, 1907, Thomas joined the RAF as an apprentice following the completion of his education at Coronation School. Due to his success in Hamilton many of his peers considered him to be English, but he never forgot his roots and returned to compete in Wales at every opportunity. He won eight Welsh titles between 1929 and 1936:
1929 ½ mile 1:58.6 Cardiff Arms Park
Mile 4:27.0 Cardiff Arms Park
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 was good enough to run for Great Britain at two Olympic Games – Amsterdam in 1928 and Los Angeles in 1932. He went to Amsterdam having finished as the runner-up in the AAA mile, but could do no better than 4th in his heat of the 1,500m. He won the AAA (UK title) mile in 1930, 1931 and 1933, and, given he was the reigning Empire Champion (beating the Aussie William Whyte by three seconds in 4:14.0) went to Los Angeles as one of the favourites for the 1,500 metre gold medal.
However, he ran with an Achilles tendon injury and was limping early in his heat and was forced to drop out. His career was plagued with Achilles problems and this had an effect on his performances and injury prevented him from competing at 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 that 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 could have been challenging for the gold.
Probably his finest race came in the British Games held at Stamford Bridge on 25 May, 1931. With reputedly 50,000 people packed in, probably to see the flying Finn, Paavo Nurmi. The winner of nine Olympic titles, and the current world record holder for the mile with 4:10.4, Nirmi ran in an invitation 4 miles race in which he disappointed in finishing only fourth.
However, Thomas, ran the race of his life in the mile to clip 4/10ths of a second off Albert Hill’s British record which had stood for 10 years with 4:13.4 (c3:55 for 1500m). No other Welshman has held a UK middle distance record. 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 sec, 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 22 July, 1933, at the Welsh Championships at Abercarn’s Welfare Ground 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. That clipped just 1/10th of a second off Thomas’s Abercarn best. His best times in other events were: 800: 1:53.6 in 1929, 1937; 1,500: 3:53.5 in 1937; 2 Miles 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. Along the way he sett 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 1,500 metre realy team which clocked 15:55.6 in winning against Germany in Cologne on 30 August, 1931.
He ran 14 times for Great Britain, winning three individual events – 800 v France in Paris 1929 in his best 800 time of 1:53.6; the Mile v 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, although due to his service commitments abroad he missed many opportunities to improve on his times. He was stationed in Egypt from 1934-1937, but on his return he finished fifth in the AAA mile of 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 on Ely Racecourse, Cardiff. He finished 44th Having secured his place in the Welsh team by finishing 6th at the Welsh championships.
WW2 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 14 March, 1946. He was just 39. An inquest heard that it was only the supreme efforts of Squadron Leader Thomas that saved the Lancaster from devastating the village. He was a hero to the end.
Reginald Heber Thomas (Athlete) Born in Pembroke on 11 January, 1907; died in Stroud on 14 March, 1946
By Clive Williams
