Alexander BEVAN

Londoner Alick Bevan competed in the road race at the 1936 Olympic despite having never ridden in a massed start race over public roads in his own country. The governing body of British cycling banned such races between 1890 and the end of World War Two. Bevan was in the middle of the leading pack when he was brought down with 100 metres to go and although he avoided being hit by other cyclists he caused a chain reaction which led to a major crash.

In January 1945 Bevan, a lieutenant in the Hampshire regiment of the British Army, was involved in an operation to capture the towns of Putt and Walderath in the Heisberg district of Western Germany. He was fatally wounded by a mine, and was buried across the border in the Netherlands at the military cemetery in the town of Brunssum. The Alick Bevan Plate Meeting at the Crystal Palace circuit in London is contested in his honour.