John Creyghton AINSWORTH-DAVIS

Having initially only been selected for the relay at the 1920 Olympic Games, Jack Ainsworth-Davis also ran in the individual 400 metres after Cecil Griffiths had withdrawn because of illness. Jack finished a surprising fifth in the individual final and then ran the third leg on the winning relay team. On leaving Westminster School, Ainsworth-Davis served both as captain in the Rifle Brigade and, after receiving his “wings” in Egypt, as pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. After the war he was rather over-shadowed as a quarter-miler by Guy Butler and in his only appearance in the University match, in 1920, he finished third. On leaving Cambridge, he studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital and supported his family by playing in a band at a fashionable nightclub. He could no longer spare much time for sport and after finishing fourth in the 440 yards at the 1921 AAA Championships he virtually retired. Ainsworth-Davis subsequently became a highly qualified and much respected doctor and urological surgeon, and served as Secretary of the Royal Society of Medicine. On the outbreak of World War II, he gave up a lucrative practice to return to the RAF where he was appointed head of the surgical division at the RAF Hospital in Cosford.

Personal Best: 400 – 50.0e (1920).