Alan Reams - Obituary

Alan Reginal "Regie" Reams (BGS 1937-40)

Alan Reams of Fishtoft, passed away peacefully at his home on 23 February 2013, aged 87 years. The funeral service was held at St Guthlac's Church, Fishtoft on Thursday 7 March 2013 at 1:30pm followed by cremation.

Alan was interviewed in 2012 by The Boston Standard about his memories of the 1948 London Olympic Games. About the 2012 games he said "I think we’re very lucky to have the Games – it’s a great event to have and I hope it’s a great success. There is no comparison to the events now. The whole thing only lasted a week and it was pretty amateur compared with today."

Alan travelled to the 1948 Games with two friends from Boston and District Athletic Club. He was a keen competitive sprinter at the time, and was lucky enough to see the men’s 100m final, the 800m semi-final and the 400m hurdles.

He said: "It was a wonderful experience to watch such a sporting event. It was very exciting. After six years of war when you had been very restricted to what you could do it was great to go to such a great event."

Post-war austerity was still very much in force during 1948, which meant the Games were very basic. Organisers had only a few years to plan the event, and rationing was still an issue.