Arthur Whitehead – the Club’s founder
Lauriston Runners Club was formed on 30th October 1966, founded by Arthur Whitehead who gave the premises to the Club, vested in four Trustees, in 1978. He gave the Club the same motto as his school in Sedbergh: “Dura Vira Nutrix”, meaning the Stern Nurse of Man. The Stag’s head is part of his family’s crest; Arthur wrote that it was so very appropriate for a Club whose members run so much in Richmond Park.
Arthur had lived in the first cottage next to the Common since Spring 1945 after he was invalided out of the Army towards the end of the Second World War. It was one of four cottages that had been stables or garage for the main house (Lauriston House) where he lived before the War and which was owned by his stepfather Sir Arthur Fell who for many years was MP for Great Yarmouth. The cottages antedated Lauriston House which was built in the last decades of the seventeenth century and was famous for having been the home of William Wilberforce in the late 1700s. When Arthur’s stepmother died in 1957, he bought the four cottages from the developers and over twenty houses were built on the land of the house and gardens.
Arthur had been hit by shrapnel some three weeks into the invasion of Normandy and accounts say one of his lungs had been half destroyed and one arm almost severed. In Autumn 1945 he started running with members of Belgrave Harriers who ran past his cottage. He had been an active runner in his school days at Sedbergh School in Yorkshire and he started to run again on the Common to regain strength. For many years he used to invite fellow runners to change in his cottage, wash in his bath and enjoy tea and biscuits in his sitting room. From about 1949 he started running long road races and in 1953 ran in the first London to Brighton Race finishing in 6 hours 44 minutes. He was an active supporter of the foundation of the Road Runners Club.
He inspired young runners. In 1960 he drove five runners in his dormobile to Rome for the Olympic Games, camping on the journey in a tent sleeping six, and he later made hill climbing excursions with groups of young runners to Wales to climb Snowdon, Malham Tarn in South Yorkshire, Sedbergh in the West Riding and WastWater and Borrowdale in the Lake District, and he revealed England and its landscapes to many.
In the late 1970s he converted the last of the four cottages into a large changing room and showers, and built, to a large extent with his own hands, toilets and a weights room.
Over the years, a number of World Record holders, including Gordon Pirie, Dave Bedford and Steve Ovett, were welcomed to the cottage and ran with Arthur across the Common.
Arthur died in 2003 but it cannot be overemphasised how much he inspired so many younger runners and thanks to his munificence contributed to the enrichment of their running experiences and their lives. Thanks to him so many can enjoy the Lauriston facilities.