Francis Edwards

Francis Edwards ran the 3 miles for Cambridge vs. Oxford four times (1905-08) and finished second in 1907 and 1908. He also won a cross-country blue (1904-06) and was the winner in 1906 in a record 41 minutes 57 seconds, beating the previous record set by Arnold Churchill two years earlier. He was also selected for the 3 mile team race at the 1908 Olympics but was not called on to run. After attending King Edward VI school in Bath he went to Queens’ College Cambridge and took an honors degree in theology in 1907 and after becoming a Civil Servant in 1911 was posted to Egypt to work for the Ministry of Education at Damanhur and was also an assistant master at Tewfikia School. He saw war service with the Camel Corps where he became a Second Lieutenant, but less than a year after joining the Camel Corps he was hospitalised suffering from neurasthenia. His medical report recommended he be transferred back to England as he was unlikely to work for a long time.” He returned to England in November 1916 but, following recovery he returned to Egypt in March 1917, and served with the Camel Transport Corps in Palestine where he acted as interpreter to Lord Allenby on his entry into Jerusalem. Edwards was released from military service in June 1919 and worked as an inspector with the Ministry of Finance in Egypt and was awarded the Order of the Nile in 1926. He later became a teacher at a preparatory school.

Personal Best: 3 miles – 14:54.6e (1908).