OXFORD City Athletic Club owes its existence to a Portuguese Jew living in Amsterdam, who fled to England to escape the Nazis during the Second World War.
Albert Milhado helped run the London edition of the Dutch resistance newspaper, Vrij Nederland (Free Netherlands), and broadcast on Radio Orange to lift Dutch spirits under Nazi rule.
As the war neared its end, his thoughts turned to peace and fostering friendship in Europe.
He formed a committee to promote sporting links between English and Dutch towns, including Oxford and the university city of Leiden.
Mr Milhado asked Monty Hillier, a 33-year-old Oxford middle distance runner, to organise an athletics team to visit the Continent.
As a result, Oxford Ladies’ Athletic Club was formed in 1944, Oxford City Athletic Club (for men) followed 17 months later and in August 1946, the first Oxford athletics team set off for Leiden.
The party included Monty Hillier, hurdler Maureen Gardner, who narrowly missed gold in the London Olympics in 1948, and Aubrey Harris, well known as the starter at athletics meetings.
The clubs amalmagated in 1976.
The story of the two clubs is told in a new book, The History of Oxford City Athletic Club, by coach and former athlete Barry Symonds, who lives at Risinghurst.
Copies, which cost £8, plus £1.70 postage, are available by emailing barry.symonds @virgin.net or they can be bought at the Horspath Road track on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 6.30 and 7.45pm.
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