Peter Lovesey second from left with fellow ISOH founder members Ian Buchanan, Bill Mallon and a member of the IOC Museum staff in Lausanne. [Photo: Bill Mallon]
ISOH Founding Member Peter Lovesey has died
by Philip Barker
The International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH) is saddened to hear of the passing of founder member Peter Lovesey at the age of 88.
Peter was one of those present at a 1991 meeting held in the Duke of Clarence Pub in West London to discuss establishing a network of Olympic historians.
“Peter was one of the founding members. He was renowned for his expertise in 19th century track and field athletics statistics, in addition to his “day job” as a mystery author.” said former ISOH President Bill Mallon.
A member of the National Union of Track and Field Statisticians, Lovesey had worked with journalist and coach Tom McNab to compile The guide to British track and field literature, 1275-1968, a valuable bibliography of the sport.
He was also the author of a history of the Amateur Athletic Association, known widely as the “Three A’s,” published to celebrate the centenary of the organisation in 1980.
Most recently, he compiled Black Athletes- the Pioneers which revealed the stories of many hitherto little-known athletes from the 19th and early 20th Century.
Lovesey had become a full-time author who wrote crime novels under the pen name of Peter Lear.
His series of books about Victorian detective Sergeant Cribb were later dramatised by British television.
Lovesey often incorporated his knowledge of athletics into his plots, including that for Golden Girl, a story which predicted the advance of doping and the use of human growth hormones in the sport.
A graduate of Reading University, he had initially been a teacher before turning full time to writing.
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