The Follies of a Victorian Athlete
(William Snook 1861-1916)

Some athletes have always sought to outdo their competitors by fair means or foul, and while nowadays they might take performance-enhancing substances, in the 19th century they resorted to fiddling the handicap system. With betting on races being the norm, there were temptations, too, to deliberately 'throw' a winning position. In those days, there was also the inflexible distinction between amateurs and professionals which was rigorously imposed by the sport's governing body.

Shropshire-born runner William Snook (1861-1916) was an outstanding athlete whose sporting career was cut short by rule-breaking controversy, and whose personal life was tarnished by scandal. He eventually died penniless. His fascinating story is told in "The Follies of a Victorian Athlete", a 68-page illustrated book written by his great-nephew Harry Andrews of Winsford, Cheshire.

In the 1880s, Snook was a member of Birchfield Harriers. He was an excellent performer over distances of 1-10 miles, steeplechase and cross-country. He won the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) titles in 1883 at 1, 4 and 10 miles and was equally successful in 1885. He was favourite for the 1886 National Cross Country Championship, but on the day he came second. He was immediately accused of deliberately allowing another competitor to win and after many appeals was suspended permanently by the AAA.

He married Elizabeth Jane Coleman in 1884 and they had two children who died in early infancy. He was a violent husband and started to beat his wife almost immediately: the abuse included bruising her all over her body, blacking her eyes, hitting her with a stick and dragging her downstairs by her hair. Eventually she left him and obtained an uncontested divorce in 1892 - an extraordinary achievement given that it was very rare in those days for a woman to petition for divorce. The decree was granted on the basis of Snook's cruelty and his adultery with one of her relations, a barmaid called Martha Annie Coleman. Two of Martha's pregnancies were terminated and the couple had to give evidence at the trial of the abortionist.

Snook subsequently moved to Paris, where he apparently played a significant part in the development of French athletics, and he became trainer to the Racing Club de France in 1900. He continued to live in Paris, despite the outbreak of World War I. He suffered periods of ill health, returned to England in 1916, and died in the Birmingham Workhouse at Erdington in December of the same year. He was buried in Witton Cemetery, Birmingham, at the expense of his old club. On his death certificate his occupation was given as professional athlete".

To assist genealogists and local historians the book has been comprehensively indexed. The index can be consulted on-line, so that you can see if there is mention of a person, place or event of interest to you.

Harry Andrews is a former information scientist with ICI Mond Division at The Heath, Runcorn. He is now retired and lives at Ilkeston, Derbyshire.

He has been researching the story of his great-uncle since the mid-1970s, and was recently delighted to track down and photograph some of Snook's most prestigious trophies. He says: My research into William Snook's athletic career and personal life has provided me with a fascinating insight into a number of aspects of 19th century life and times, as well as into the formation of the Amateur Athletic Association and its influence on the development of athletics in the UK and beyond."

Track Stat Book Review by Wilf Morgan

The grim tale of a Victorian runner's life

William Snooks outstanding performance in 1885, when he took advantage of Walter George's move to the professional ranks and won the English cross-country championship and then four titles at the AAA championships, will always be overshadowed by his life suspension for "roping" (deliberately losing a race). It is the rights and wrongs of his suspension that attracts the attention of most historians, however, this 62 page book contains statements both pro and anti from the sports writers of the day. Snook may have been wronged - who knows?- but it seems that his attitude hardly helped his cause. He is the great uncle of Harry Andrews, and the author tells it "warts and all", with some unpleasant facts about the runner's private life.

Although his tussles with Walter George are known to purveyors of Victorian athletics, perhaps not generally known is that Snook raced the American style, Lon Myers, five times in the summer of 1884-the first one a three-quarter mile race which Mayers won in two minutes 59 seconds! The others were handicaps with Snook receiving distance and finishing ahead. Two were at 880 yards (perhaps Myers best distance) and must have been exciting to watch, as off 20 yards he held off Myers each time with one minute 56 1/4 and one minute 57 1/4.

An hilarious episode which reads in like something from a Charlie Chaplin film is related. On a training spin Snook was chased by farmhands with pitchforks who thought he was an escapee from the local lunatic asylum, but that's the only light moment in a grim tale of a man who went from being one of the leading figures in athletics in the 1880s to court cases over his relations with women, and then to destitution in Paris, and finally to death in a workhouse hospital in Birmingham.