International Centre for Olympic Studies

Bob Barney solves Canadian Olympic riddle

Identification of Canada’s First Olympic Team -- London, 1908

ICOSThe photograph, taken in July 1908 in London, England on the occasion of the Games of the 4th Olympiad depicts 37 individuals, of whom 33 were those which the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) referred to as its “Stadium Team,” those who competed in events associated with the Great Olympic Stadium. This Stadium Team photograph was first discovered in 2009 in the family records of one of the athletes pictured (Robert Parkes). Using a method similar to “triangulation verification,” the identity of every individual in the photograph was recently brought to a close. For the first time in Canadian Olympic history, then, the result of the examination appears below.

Top row, L-R: Norton Crowe (COC Secretary), William Tait (coach), Fred Meadows (track and field- T&F), William Goldsboro (T&F), George Goulding (T&F), Don Buddo (T&F), Fred Noseworthy T&F), Louis Sebert (T&F), John Fitzgerald (T&F), Aubert Coté (wrestling)

Middle Row, L-R: Fred McCarthy (cycling), William Anderson (cycling), Dave Belland (T&F), William Wood (T&F), J. G. MacDonald (T&F), Harry Lawson (T&F), Fred Simpson (T&F), George Barber (T&F), Robert Zimmerman (swimming/diving), Robert Parkes (T&F), Frank Savage (T&F), Calvin Bricker (T&F), Harry Young (cycling), Walter Andrews (cycling)

Bottom Row, L-R: Ed Cotter (T&F), Bobby Kerr (T&F), Frank Lukeman (T&F), John McCaffrey (TF), John Howard Crocker (COC Stadium Team manager), Ed Archibald (T&F), William Galbraith (T&F), Jack Tait (T&F), George Lister (T&F)

Seated on ground, L-R: William Sherring (coach), Albert Keith (gymnastics), Orville Elliott (gymnastics), Percy Nobbs (fencing)

*** Four Stadium Team athletes were not present for the photograph. They were: Tom Longboat (T&F), William Morton (cycling), Arthur Burn (T&F), and Cornelius Walsh (T&F)