The England hockey team from the 1908 Olympic Final. Louis Baillon is seated furthest left.

Louis Charles Baillon is the only Falkland islander to have won an Olympic gold medal. He achieved this feat as a member of the England hockey team that won gold at the 1908 London Olympic Games.

Although born in the Falklands at Fox Bay in 1881 it is unlikely that Louis learned his hockey there. He was clearly a very natural sportsman competing extensively when he came to England in his youth. His father emigrated to the Falkland Islands from the Nottingham area around 1876 to become a sheep farmer. When Louis ‘returned’ to England he chose to live in Northampton, marrying there in 1910. He played hockey for Northampton as a fullback and went on to play for England nine times in that position, including the gold medal match at the White City stadium in the 1908 Olympic Final.

Louis’s other sporting activities included football for Wandsworth AFC and he was still in the Northants County Lawn Tennis team at the age of 50 – clearly a very talented all-round sportsman. He also enjoyed some business success becoming a Director of Phipps Brewery in Northampton – a fine example of the age-old link between alcohol and hockey! He continued to live in Northants dying there in 1965 at the age 84.

It is difficult to imagine modern-day Olympic champions being able to lead such a diverse sporting life as well as incorporating a business career; especially when today’s elite performance squads demand such high dedication, both in time and professionalism.

More information on the extended Baillon family can be found here.

Louis Charles Baillon’s sporting memorabilia resides in the Falkland Islands Museum in Stanley. Image credit: the Friends of the Falkland Islands Museum.