Complete Surrender

Complete Surrender
By Julian Wilson
Monarch Publications. 157 pages. £6.99
ISBN 1 854 348 9

'Eric Liddell, missionary, died in occupied China at the end of World War II. All Scotland mourned.'
This comment coming at the end of the film Chariots of Fire leaves the audience wondering what lay between the sensational winning of the gold medal in the 400 metres in the 1924 Olympics and his tragic early death.
Why, too, has this man, who vanished so abruptly from the international athletic scene and who would undoubtedly have won medal after medal, so captured the admiration of people all over the world? Why, for example, did he so impress a Japanese doctor that he named his first son after him?
Julian Wilson has attempted to fill in this gap and highlight the motivation behind this unassuming, smiling, joke-loving, courageous man. He has achieved this by his reading of earlier biographies by D.P. Thompson and Sally Magnusson and by interviewing many others, family and friends who knew Eric intimately or worked with him.
The book traces Eric's life through his early childhood with his missionary parents in China, rich in family affection. Then comes his school life during which his athletic gifts soon became apparent and where he set new records in running which hold to this day; from school to Edinburgh University where his speed found him a place in the Scottish Rugby team and, most important of all, in the Olympic squad.
None of the fame he achieved on the sports field did anything to deter him from his decision to return to China to teach in a city mission school, and later to be involved in evangelical work in the hazardous north China countryside, at that time torn apart by constant warring between the Japanese and Chinese Communists armies.
Before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937, Eric had continued to run in local and international events all over the Far East becoming a highly popular and admired figure. This was to prove an asset later when involved in delicate negotiations with the Japanese military.
The book ends with a dramatic account of his final days in a Japanese internment camp, illustrated by first-hand stories from fellow internees, several of them children whom he taught in the camp and to whom he gave his all.
What drove him? The main purpose of this new account of his life would seem to be to answer this question. The most noticeable thing about Eric was his commitment to God, which was total. He ran and worked for his glory, something which to him was far more important than national or personal fame. This brought a warmth to all his relationships and hope to many in the dark days of the war. He never missed, even in the camp, his time first thing in the morning when he would talk with and listen to God.
In this centennial Olympic year, when we have witnessed both the euphoria of victory and the despair of defeat; the adulation that goes with success and the recriminations which accompany failure, this book comes as a timely and very readable reminder that putting God first and doing one's best for Him can lead to a far more satisfying victory than any mere human achievement.

Dr. Frances A.M. McAll

Dr Frances McCall

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