Sadly we must report that Gerry North has passed away after a prolonged period of illness. His sons David and Andrew were both with him.

Gerry was one of the all-time greats of cross-country running - a national champion as a junior, senior and veteran. Always of a cheerful disposition, he lived for athletics and was one of those few people of whom one could truly say that nobody seemed to have a bad word to say about him.

Born in Cheshire and encouraged by a sporting father, Gerry's talent emerged at school where he was soon featuring in the school sports and the longer the race the better he did. Football was also an early passion and he played for Blackpool FA Youths against Leeds at Elland Road alongside future soccer stars George Eastham and Jimmy Armfield. The pure individuality of running drew him strongest, however, and soon, with his trademark blazing starts where he gave no quarter the instant the gun was fired, he was a regular winner. He was fourth in the National Junior Championship of 1956 and then a runaway winner at Parliament Hill Fields in 1957. 1960 saw him win the Inter-County title, in 1961 he was third in the National and then the following year won both the Inter-Counties and National Championships where he outran a stellar field, finishing with a searing sprint to defeat Bruce Tulloh. When it came to the 1962 International event (forerunner of today’s IAAF World CC Champs) Gerry broke away from the field and was going great guns when a heavy fall at a sharp bend winded him badly: he kept going, fighting hard, but his winning streak was ended as he placed 8th, utterly convinced that the fall had cost him the International title.

Gerry’s racing programme was ferocious. It was nothing for he and his rivals Ron Hill and Mike Freary to face up to each other on a Saturday, turn out for a road race on the Sunday morning and then, it being a bank holiday, race each other over the fells on a Monday. In 1961 Gerry raced 10 miles on the track on a Saturday and followed it up on the Monday with a course record win in the Feltham ‘5’. Teaming up with Brian Craig he raced in a two man 10 mile relay vs. Freary and Hill: they ran it as a paarlauf, each man running half a lap of the track before ‘jogging’ across the infield to take over again: both teams finished together in around 42 minutes.

Gerry, together with his family, including parents and brother Geoff (an outstanding runner and future international in his own right) moved to London in 1962. He joined Belgrave Harriers and became the club’s inspirational Running Captain, leading Belgrave teams through a period of considerable success. Track international honours followed cross country success and among his accomplishments Gerry placed 2nd over 10,000m vs. West Germany at White City. He switched his county allegiance from the extremely successful Lancashire to Surrey and Inter-County winning team honours came again in Surrey’s Old Gold colours. Thirteen times Gerry won Surrey Cross Country League races, ten times he headed our National team with eight of those runs in the top twenty, and he was Southern Cross Country Champion in 1967.

Moving on to the South Coast in later life Gerry never stopped running, winning the M50 National title in 1987. He became a highly motivating coach, taking great pleasure in seeing his protégés progress, and he was organiser of the famous Victory 5 miles Road Race in Portsmouth. He could even be seen managing Portsmouth's Southern League Team or the SEAA Road Running teams.

Gerry was elected President of Belgrave Harriers in 2004.

Best times: 1m 4:10.3 (64), 3k 8:19.8 (68), 5k 14:15.0 (68), 10k 29:08.4* (67), 10m track 48:38.2 (62), 20m 1:44:23 (69), Mar 2:30.27 (62). * = converted from 6 miles

Top image: Gerry North (Belgrave & England) races in the International Cross Country Championships of 1964 on Leopardstown Race Course, Dublin, Ireland, where he placed fourth ahead of Jim Hogan (Polytechnic H & Ireland). England won the team race from France and Morocco.