Vera Searle

Vera Searle
Personal information
Born	25 August 1901; Leytonstone, London, England
Died	12 September 1998; Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	250 metres
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	250 m: 35.4 (1923, WR); 250 m: 33.8 (1925, WR);
Representing United Kingdom
Women's World Games

Vera Maud Searle OBE (née Palmer; 25 August 1901 – 12 September 1998) was a British sprinter and athletics administrator.

She was born in Leytonstone, London, on 25 August 1901 [1] to Albert Palmer (1878 - 1935), assistant secretary of Chelsea Football Club,[2] and Maud Mary Palmer (1879 - 1946). She was the eldest of four children.

In 1923 she co-founded the Middlesex Ladies Athletics Club, now the Ealing Southall & Middlesex Athletics Club. Later the same year, she participated at the first WAAA Championships taking bronze medal in running 220 yards.

Competing as Vera Palmer, she set a world record at 250 metres of 35.4 seconds in 1923 Paris and in 1925, again set a world record at 250 metres of 33.8 seconds at Stamford Bridge.[3] In 1924 she participated at the 1924 Women's Olympiad and won the silver medal in running 250 m and the gold medal in the relay 4 x 220 yards.

In August 1926, she won silver in the 250m at the 1926 Women's World Games, held at the Slottsskogsvallen Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden.[3]

In October 1926, she married Wilfred Edwin Searle, and they had two daughters together; Brenda born 1928 and Angela born 1935.[1]

She was honorary secretary of the Women's Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA) from 1930 to 1933, vice-chairman from 1959 to 1973, chairman from 1973 to 1981, and later president until the WAAA merged with the Amateur Athletic Association in 1991.[3] She received the OBE in 1979 for services to athletics.[3]

She died in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 12 September 1998.[3]

References

Adam Szreter (8 October 1998). "Obituary: Vera Searle | Culture". The Independent. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
Williams, Jean (2014). A Contemporary History of Women's Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850-1960. Routledge. p. 134.
Watman, Mel (May 2012). "Women athletes between the world wars (act. 1919–1939) : Vera Maud Palmer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 October 2017.

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[independent1-1] Adam Szreter (8 October 1998). "Obituary: Vera Searle | Culture". The Independent. Retrieved 17 July 2016.

[2] Williams, Jean (2014). A Contemporary History of Women's Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850-1960. Routledge. p. 134.

[odnb-3] Watman, Mel (May 2012). "Women athletes between the world wars (act. 1919–1939) : Vera Maud Palmer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 October 2017.