John WILSON

John Wilson was a Scottish-born road racer and time-trial specialist who finished 16th in the individual road race at the 1912 Olympics. Great Britain had three squads in the team competition and John was the highest-placed member of the eight-man Scottish team that finished fourth. At the time of the Games John was a member of the Hull Thursday RC at the and the club uniquely had two of its members represent Great Britain in Stockholm, Englishman John Kirk being the other.

But it was not as a cyclist that John Wilson earned a reputation in the world of sport but as an administrator. He was the former secretary of the Yorkshire Cycling Federation, was a director of Hull Kingston Rovers Rugby League club and for more than 20 years was the secretary of the Rugby Football League at their Leeds headquarters. In December 1933 he helped organise a match between an England XIII and Australian XIII in Paris and this is regarded as the match that saw the birth of Rugby League in France. He retired from his post at the end of the 1945-46 season.

John’s two sons, Andy and Jack, were both top class road British cyclists and Andy was regarded as the best road racer in Britain in the early 1920s.