George de Relwyskow
George Frederick William de Relwyskow was an English sport wrestler who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics for Great Britain.
Biography
Born in Kensington in 1887, the son of immigrants from the Russian Empire, de Relwyskow took up wrestling as a means of keeping fit while a student in London training as an artist and designer. By 1907, he had won thirty-five open competitions in Great Britain and won the amateur championships at lightweight and middleweight at the British Wrestling Championships in 1907 and 1908. Because of his success, he was selected to represent Great Britain in the 1908 Olympics held in London.On the outbreak of the First World War, de Relwyskow returned to Britain from South America, where he was on a wrestling tour to enlist in the Army. He served as a gymnastic and bayonet-fighting trainer and served for a period with the Australian infantry. In France, he trained soldiers in the use of unarmed combat. In October 1918, de Relwyskow was based at Aldershot as a Army Physical Training Corps instructor in the Army system of wrestling, a system he created. In 1924, he was appointed trainer for the British Olympic Games team in the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
George de Relwyskow was the youngest winner of an Olympic gold medal for wrestling, a record that was to stand for almost seventy years until the 20-year-old Soviet Suren Nalbandyan won the Greco-Roman lightweight title in 1976.
He enlisted again at the start of World War II and served as an instructor in Unarmed Combat and Silent Killing with the Special Operations Executive. After serving for a period as an instructor at the SOE School in Canada – the Special Training School 103, de Relwyskow returned to Britain before being sent to the Far East.
Relwyskow died at his Leeds home in 1942. He left a wife, Clara, and sons, Douglas and George. Douglas was a professional wrestling referee whose own son, also called Douglas, became a regular face on televised professional wrestling in the UK under the name Barry Douglas. Barry Douglas died on 23 February 2024.