Vane Ivanović

Vane Ivanović was born in Osijek, Austria-Hungary (now Croatia) in 1913 before moving to London in 1920 to live with his mother following his parents’ divorce. Ivanović attended Westminster School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he studied economics. As a keen athlete he represented Yugoslavia at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in the 110 metres hurdles and the 400 metres hurdles, reaching the semi-finals in the former. A Yugoslav champion in both distances in the 1930s, Ivanović also held the Yugoslav record in the 400 metres from 1936 to 1953.

When World War II broke out Ivanović helped with his step-father’s ship-owning business, transferring almost half of the fleet to be used by the British services. He also worked with other Yugoslav shipowners to do the same to prevent the Yugoslav fleet falling into the hands of the Nazis. In 1943 Ivanović had joined the Yugoslav branch of the Political Warfare Executive, the British propaganda arm of the Special Operations Executive. He spent the remainder of the war either in London or Cario, unable to go to Yugoslavia due to the Communist Party. After the war Ivanović continued to have a successful shipping career and later held the post of consul general of Monaco in London to Prince Rainier III.

Personal Bests: 110H – 14.8 (1937); 400H – 54.7 (1936).