26.08.1924 – 30.03.2022
“A Legend has left us” is certainly true of John Peake who died in March at the age of 97. He was the oldest living British Olympic medallist, having won a hockey silver medal at the 1948 London Olympic Games. In 2012, John was a celebrity guest at the London Games creating an Olympic bridge that spanned 64 years, and he was one of the Olympic torch bearers, too.
One of John’s proudest boasts was that his 1948 Olympic blazer still fitted him! He commented that he had purchased his own blazer as the only ‘freebies’ that the 1948 team were given were two pairs of Y-Fronts and some Brylcreem! He also recalled that the hockey pitch at Wembley Stadium created very challenging conditions. This was because the shot putt from the earlier athletics events had left divots all over the grass pitch. John’s memory and wit were sharp until the end.
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| John Peake receives his GB honours cap from Gayane Selimyan, Manager of his care home, in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. |
Sporting Prowess
John was born in Cambridge where he first played hockey and won a scholarship to Repton School in 1938. There his sporting prowess blossomed, including three years in the cricket 1st XI. It was then back to Cambridge University where he won blues for hockey, tennis and squash. It was at Cambridge that he met his wife-to-be Elizabeth. She was similarly skilled in the same sports, also winning blues. They were to spend 65 years of happy marriage before Elizabeth died.
There have been excellent obituaries of John in the Times and the Telegraph, but here we hope to give you a little more detail about John’s involvement in hockey and sport, much of it gleaned from the splendid eulogy delivered by his son Christopher at John’s funeral. The event was a fitting tribute to his long and varied life.
John was a multi-talented sportsman and as well as cricket and hockey he achieved high honours in both tennis and squash. In hockey, as well as representing Great Britain he played for England, Kent, The Royal Navy and the Combined Services. Such achievements are not really possible in today’s sporting world.
John retained a strong level of personal fitness even into his 90s. In May 2019 he completed the Westminster Mile and was greeted by a hockey stick guard of honour at the finish line (pictured).
Military and Civilian Career
John finished at Cambridge University during the Second World War and joined the Royal Navy in the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors. Apart from wide ranging work experience it gave him time to play sport, a period that took in the 1948 London Olympic Games. In 1950 John left the Royal Navy and having suffered a slipped disc his hockey days were over. He went on to have a very successful and distinguished business career, rising to Chairman of Baker Perkins (a British engineering company for food processing equipment). His 36 years culminated with being awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to industry in 1986.
John Peake and The Hockey Museum
John never lost his love of hockey and shortly after The Hockey Museum (THM) found a home in Woking, he contacted us to ascertain what was going on! There followed a decade of interest and involvement by John, though initially we had no idea what a hockey legend he was.
Another legend of the London 1948 era was Balbir Singh Senior. Balbir was also a great friend of THM and visited us several times, often commenting on how sad it was that India did not have a similar museum. On one of these occasions, we set up a meeting between John and Balbir, recorded by an ITV film crew. It was an amazing piece of sporting history. The two men had not met since they played in the Olympic hockey final in 1948, yet it was like they were old and close friends. The respect that they showed each other was palpable.
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John Peake and Balbir Singh Senior at The Hockey Museum in 2012. Photograph: Dil Bahra. |
John was always honoured to attend THM events but really it was us who were honoured. Another wonderful occasion took place in 2019 when THM set up a further great hockey meeting. This time John met with Tony Nunn, a hockey Olympic bronze medallist from the 1952 Olympic Games. Although John had finished playing by 1952, they were contemporaries and friends. Tony had attended John’s wedding in 1951. The story has a pleasing twist here in that although we are deeply saddened to lose a legend like John Peake, his mantle of being the oldest surviving Great Britain Olympic medallist has passed to Tony. So, hockey retains the honour of possessing the oldest living GB medallist.
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| Tony Nunn and John Peake during their joing visit to The Hockey Museum in 2019. |
Oral Histories
We shall soon be able to offer you John Peake’s oral history interviews on our website, though they are not currently available online. Transcripts can be made available to researchers. If you think you have the time and technical skills to help us achieve more oral history recordings online sooner, please get in touch. Meantime, please do listen to our already published oral histories and read the obituaries of hockey greats elsewhere on our site.
