Doris Batter

Doris Batter took up running to help improve her speed as a hockey player, and within 12 months found herself at the 1948 London Olympic Games. She won her opening heat in the 100 metres, but was then drawn in a semi-final containing Fanny Blankers-Koen and Shirley Strickland, the eventual gold and bronze medalists, and she failed to qualify for the final. Batter went to the Olympics as a member of London Olympiades, the oldest women’s athletic club in Britain, formed in 1921. She also went to the Games as the reigning WAAA 60 metres champion, a title she retained in 1949.

Batter represented England at the 1950 Empire Games and, despite finishing fifth in her respective heats in the individual 100 and 220 yards, won a silver medal in the 660 yards relay along with Dorothy Hall, Sylvia Cheeseman and Margaret Walker. After the Games, Cheeseman and Batter were banned from representative athletics for a year by the Women’s AAA, because they were: “Not amenable to discipline during the Games”. The ban barely lasted two months, when they were cleared after an appeal. A keen squash player, Batter married the useful half-miler Len Hatton in the summer of 1951.

Personal Best: 100y – 11.1 (1949).