Roger Bannister Biography

Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister was born on 23 March 1929 and passed away on 3 March 2018. At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister competed in the 1500 metres and set a British record. A 2002 Channel 4 poll ranked Bannister's sub-4-minute mile as the 13th greatest sporting moment out of 100. Bannister later became a neurologist and served as Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, until his retirement in 1993. Bannister was initially accepted into St John's College, Cambridge, but was advised to delay enrollment by a former Olympic shot putter. Like Wooderson, Bannister achieved a personal milestone, saw it surpassed, and then recorded a new personal best that was slower than the new record. Bannister began his running career at Oxford in the autumn of 1946 at the age of 17.