As we get closer, with each passing day, to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games*, CommunityAd thought they would pay homage to our former Olympic gold medallist, Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame.
Fellow Olympians from Faversham include former athlete Gordon Watts who competed in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris and sailor Slotty Dawes who competed in the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
For issue 22 of our Faversham CommunityAd Magazine, we look at the career of a true war hero, Sir Phillip Neame who remains, to this day, Faversham’s only gold medallist Olympian…
Born at Macknade on the 12th December 1888, Neame was educated at Cheltenham College and the British Army’s Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. Upon graduating the Royal Military Academy, Neame received a commission as a second lieutenant into the Royal Engineers in July 1908. Two years later, he was promoted to lieutenant whilst serving with the 15 Field Squadron.
The outbreak of the war in 1914 saw Neame posted to France and on the 14th December he was awarded the Victoria Cross for “conspicuous gallantry near Neuve-Chapelle when, notwithstanding the very heavy rifle fire and bomb-throwing by the enemy, he succeeded in holding them back and in rescuing all the wounded men whom it was possible to move.”
Neame was promoted to the rank of captain and given a hero’s welcome after returning back to Faversham in 1915, taking a week’s leave before going on to receive his medal from King George V at Windsor. In 1916, Neame would be awarded the DSO (Distinguished Service Order) and following another promotion to Brevet Major and would end the war in November 1918 with the temporary rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Already an established shooter, Neame was a member of the Great Britain 1924 Olympic Running Deer team in Paris. The competition involved teams of four, firing single shots, at a moving target that simulated an animal. The 36-year-old won gold alongside fellow teammates Cyril Mackworth-Praed, Herbert Perry and Lieutenant Colonel and DSO, Allen Whitty. Neame’s achievement at the 1924 games means he is the only Victoria Cross recipient who has won an Olympic Gold Medal.
Neame fought in the Second World War in France, Egypt, Palestine and Libya where he was captured in 1941 and moved to Italy as a prisoner of war, escaping in 1943 and spending nearly 4 months on the run, before finally arriving back in London on Boxing Day 1943. Neame was knighted three years later and at the end of the war in 1945, became Lieutenant-Governor of the Bailiwick of Guernsey until 1953.
In 1934, Neame married Harriet Drew with whom he has 4 children, Gerald, Veronica, Nigel and Philip. On the 28th April, Sir Philip Neame died aged 90, at his home in Selling and was buried in the graveyard of the St. Mary the Virgin Church.
Neame’s medals and awards are held by the Imperial War Museum in London and in 2014, a memorial stone was laid in memory of him, unveiled in a ceremony by the Chief Royal Engineer Lieutenant General Sir Mark Mans KCB CBE DL and attended by Neame’s children Veronica and twin sons Nigel and Philip.