From Seeds August – September 2024

The Olympics, which come centre stage in August, were last held in Paris in 1924. On that occasion, the Scottish athlete and committed Christian Eric Liddell withdrew from the 100m competition, his favoured discipline, because the heats were to take place on a Sunday. That story, and what happened next, was re-told in the Oscar-winning film, Chariots of Fire, and is the inspiration for this year’s Eric Liddell 100 celebrations.

Liddell later became a minister in the Congregational Church and, like his parents before him, a missionary in China. When back in Scotland, he worshipped at Morningside Congregational Church, now Morningside United.

Carcant – tennis, running, and rabbit

Eric Liddell’s sister, Jenny, married into the Somerville family in 1932, becoming the wife of Dr Charles Somerville, the greatuncle of Robert Somerville and Elspeth Somerville Harley.

Elspeth writes:

Eric Liddell is best remembered through the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, but his name was familiar to me long before that.

Eric was both an outstanding athlete and a Christian missionary. He studied, lived and taught in Edinburgh and represented Scotland in Rugby and Athletics.

At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Liddell refused to run in the heats for his favoured 100 metres because they were held on a Sunday. Instead, he competed in the 400 metres, held on a weekday, and won gold.

He returned to China (his birthplace) in 1925 to serve as a missionary teacher. He only came back to Scotland for two furloughs, one of which he spent at Carcant, [an area of land in the Moorfoot Hills in Midlothian, in part owned by the Somerville family]. His sister Jenny was married to Charles Somerville, my great uncle, and I sometimes met her at Carcant when my family visited my grandmother and aunt who lived there.

While Eric was there, I am told he ran on the hills – training? or for the joy of it? or both? He also played tennis with various family members on a rough grass court they tried to maintain in the cow park – where two milking cows grazed.

Robert adds:

There were two relevant Charles Somervilles: the elder was a doctor in Bonnyrigg. It was he who became brother-in-law to Eric. His nephew, ‘Charlie’ Somerville (Elspeth’s and my father), was a member of AUC until his death in 2017. At Carcant in 1940 he remembered Eric as an excellent tennis player too. He also ran down rabbits!

Elspeth concludes:

Eric remained a missionary in rural China until his death in a Japanese civilian internment camp in 1945 [of a brain tumour and haemorrhage].

There he inspired both internees and guards by his cheerfulness and his deep spirituality.

He led physical exercises, taught classes to keep minds sharp, and shared his faith. Even in the camp he lived as he lived his whole life – with passion, compassion and integrity.

Eric said, ‘We are all missionaries. Wherever we go we either bring people nearer to Christ or we repel them from Christ.’

A tartan specially commissioned for the Eric Liddell 100 includes a recurring green stripe, ‘to represent his family holidays at Carcant and his love of field sports’. (The Scottish Register of Tartans)

Life in Tianjin

Kathleen Ziffo recalls getting to know Lorna Cammock, who handed her a photocopied handwritten letter from Eric Liddell to her late father, the Revd Charles Cammock.

Mr Cammock ministered in several churches in Glasgow and the west of Scotland, and had known Eric a little while they were training for the ministry. The letter includes what Eric calls some ‘cameo sketches’ of his life in China at the end of 1934.

My dear Cammock,

It was good to get your letter & hear of your work in Oban. Why, of course I remember you; wasn’t it you who took for his test in the sermon class ‘… that I may know Him & the power of His resurrection…’. Well those days are past now, I often wish I had made more use of them. You want a note from China – it will have to be brief but may help to bring a little interest to some. I’ll write it in two or three little sketches…

1. The fellowship of prayer

I am working in a College [the AngloChinese Christian College in Tianjin, run by the London Missionary Society] as a teacher of Science. This last term I gave a special invitation to several of the teachers to join with me each morning before classes start. At first only one or two did but slowly we have had others adding on. We turn to prayer; we challenge ourselves so as to help us intentionally to keep close to the Holy Ghost [?]. It has brought a fine spirit between us which I hope will spread.

2. The place we work in

Tiantsin [Tianjin] hardly seems like a Chinese city as it is so foreign in many ways. We are situated in the French Concession with all the modern conveniences – electric trams outside our doors etc. There are all the difficulties of a city for education work, especially fields for games. This year we have been fortunate in securing an adjoining piece of ground. It was covered with bricks – stones – boulders etc & with the boys all helping & outside workmen we have been able to clear it so that there is a football field right next to us.

3. The Church

On the opposite side of the road there is the church with all its activities. Two or three days ago they gave a bag of meal each to people who had been selected as desperately in need. My, they were too. We don’t understand such poverty and filth.

….

All the best of wishes for 1935. May it be the best year you’ve had with a rich blessing on your congregation.

Eric finds fandom

A service celebrating the life of Eric Liddell was held at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh on Saturday 22 June.

The preacher was the Revd Lindsey Sanderson, Moderator of the National Synod of Scotland. She shared stories of how the teenagers at Morningside Congregational Church – where Liddell led Bible study sessions – formed a fan club…

On 17 December 1925, Eric Liddell wrote a letter to Elsa McKechnie, acknowledging the founding of 14-year-old Elsa’s Eric Liddell Club. ‘I do not know what I might be let in for’, he wrote. ‘However, there are times when we have to risk a little’ – and to receive the adulation of some teenage girls was clearly something Eric considered a risk.

Many years later Elsa would recall having heard Eric speak at Morningside Congregational Church, and reflect that it was his sincerity and humility which drew her and her friends to their expression of fandom.

Elsa found in Eric a role model. Fast forward almost 60 years, and the release of Chariots of Fire introduced me to Eric Liddell. A little younger than Elsa, here for me was someone with whom I could identify – someone who was nurtured in the Congregational Union of Scotland that was nurturing me, and significantly someone whose own commitment to not running on a Sunday chimed with my experience growing up – that Sunday was a day for church and family, and not friends’ birthday parties or, the one I did particularly struggle with, school skiing lessons in Glen Shee.

Role models are important for all of us, especially when we see ourselves in others and take inspiration from that.

Celebrating the Revd Eric H. Liddell

Morningside United Church (MUC), Liddell’s ‘home’ church, is proud of its association with the famous runner.

His name, together with those of his brother and sister-in-law, is included on the Morningside Congregational Church Missionary Roll of Honour. ,

The congregation remains involved in supporting The Eric Liddell Community, located across the road in the former North Morningside Parish Church. The Community supports people living with dementia, including through its flagship day care service; runs a wellbeing programme for unpaid carers; and operates a community hub, including a café and office space for social enterprises and charities.

Events over the summer celebrating the Eric Liddell 100 include:

22 July – 4 August:
Around 30 shops and businesses from Bruntsfield to Comiston celebrating the Liddell centenary with
window displays.

25 July – 12 September:
Eric Liddell exhibition at the Scottish Parliament.

6 August (Tuesday), 6.15-7.30pm:
BBC Radio 4 recording a service of hymns and choral music at MUC. To be broadcast at
8:15am on Sunday 11 August to mark the close of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. All singers welcome.

10 August (Saturday), 2-4pm:
Dedication of Eric Liddell Peace Garden & Garden Party, MUC

16 August (Friday), 1.30-2.45pm:
Eric Liddell: The Chariot of Fire – a theatre performance by Searchlight Theatre, MUC.
Tickets £12:50. See EdFringe 2024 (searchlighttheatre.org)

Lots of information about Eric Liddell and the centenary events at ericliddell.org/the-eric-liddell-100/