Reg Thomas
Track
Competed in two Olympic Games (1928 and 1932) and set a British mile record of 4:13.4 in 1931. Won eight Welsh championship titles and was part of a world record-setting 4x1500m relay team.
Biography
Reg Thomas (1907-1946) was born in Pembroke Dock and became a prominent Welsh middle-distance runner of the late 1920s and 1930s. He competed in two Olympic Games — Amsterdam 1928 and Los Angeles 1932 — and ran 14 times for Great Britain, winning three individual events.
He set a British mile record of 4:13.4 at Stamford Bridge in 1931, which stood as a Welsh best until beaten by Jim Alford in 1938. He was part of a world record-setting British 4 x 1500m relay team in 1931, and won eight Welsh championship titles between 1929 and 1936.
Thomas served as an RAF serviceman and won eleven RAF titles, including the mile title eight times. He died in 1946 when his Lancaster bomber crashed near Stroud, aged 39. He was posthumously inducted into Welsh Athletics’ Hall of Fame in 2024.