S.M. Wainwright
Birchfield Sporting Tales can exclusively reveal that the mysterious S M Wainwight, whose photo has for long hung in the clubroom, was Stephen Miles Wainwright, a grocer’s clerk from Ludlow. He ran for Birchfield at distances up to 440 yards in the last decade of the 19th century. The three “loggerheads” on his shirt confirm his Shropshire origins.
Born in Ludlow around 1972, the son of a journeyman painter, he lived in Ludford, by the bridge over the Teme. He first appears in results in Kidderminster, winning a 440yd race in 1890, the year after his father’s death.
In the next 6 years his races at the Shepherds’ Sports in Worcester, the Kidderminster Carpet Weavers’ Sports, the Foresters’ Sports Fete at Worcester, the Philanthropic Society Fete in Coventry and the Birchfield Sports at Aston Lower Ground were reported in the press. As the photo shows, the prizes were generous.
He vanishes from the sports columns around 1896, when his performances were waning, although he travelled as far afield as Hunslet, in Leeds, in 1896. He married in 1900 and had one son in 1901. He died, aged 55, in 1927.
Birchfield Harriers Sporting Tales 