Peter Wells (athlete)

"English Native Records" were defined by the AAA in 1928 as performances made in England or Wales by athletes born in England or Wales.

Peter Wells (23 May 1929 – 5 January 2018) was a British-born athlete who competed in the High Jump at the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics.

In the school library there were two scrapbooks of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and Wells spent many hours poring over these and, in particular, the high jumping of the American, Harold Osborn, who was the “father” of the Western Roll technique.

Initially Wells practiced the scissors technique.

He attended Byng Road Council School, (now called Foulds School), and then went to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in 1939.

Wells first big meeting was the Public Schools’ championships of 1946 held on the University of London track at Motspur Park in Surrey, in which he came 3rd with 5 ft. Queen Elizabeth's School won the Public Schools Challenge Cup.

On 18 April 1947, the meeting was again at Motspur Park, and this time Wells won the high jump title, in the process becoming the first English schoolboy to clear 6 ft 0in, beating the previous best of 5 ft set by H.A.Simmons (Taunton's, Southampton) in 1928.

Queen Elizabeth's School again won the challenge cup, and as athletics captain Wells had the responsibility of collecting it, plus the high jump cup, in a ceremony at the conclusion of the two-day meeting.

This jump was higher than the gold medal jump at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London the previous year.

On 6 August 1949, high jumpers Wells (20 years old) and Ron Pavitt represented London in an inter-city athletics match against 2 athletes from Gothenburg at White City Stadium, London.

Usually Wells would start jumping at 5 ft, and increase this by 0 ft after each successful jump.

This day the Swedes had to jump first and they passed in at 5 ft, and then also at 5 ft. Wells and Pavitt also passed in at 5 ft and 5 ft, so for the first (and only) time in his career Wells started jumping at 6 ft. He and Pavitt succeeded at 6 ft, then 6 ft, then to 6 ft. By this time the Swedish athletes had dropped out.

Wells then succeeded at 6 ft, at his first attempt, to beat the previous English Native high jump record of 6 ft held by Benjamin Howard Baker.

Pavitt also succeeded at 6 ft to equal the record.

At 6 ft Pavitt beat the record again, which Wells was unable to match.

So in the course of about 5 minutes, Wells broke the English Native high jump record, then shared it with Pavitt, and then lost it to Pavitt.

Wells and Pavitt maintained a close and friendly rivalry for several years, and were referred to as "The Heavenly Twins".

Two weeks later, Wells and Pavitt competed for the Southern Counties in an inter-area match at St. George Grammar School playing fields at Whitehall, Bristol.

Jumping off his preferred grass take-off area, Wells re-took the English Native high jump record with a jump of 6 ft. 6⅜in (1.99m).

He also represented England at the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland, and New Zealand at the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver.

After the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland, Wells didn't travel back to England with the rest of the team, preferring to stay and settle in Christchurch, New Zealand.

He lived in New Zealand for the rest of his life, apart from a short period in 1952 when he returned to England in order to qualify for the 1952 Summer Olympics.

On 11 December 1954, in Christchurch, New Zealand, Wells recorded the highest jump of his career with 6 ft. This equalled the British high jump record set by Alan Paterson on 2 August 1947.

This record was not beaten until 30 April 1959, when the Hermes Club jumper, G.A.Miller, against Oxford University, cleared 6 ft.

This was superseded in 1960 by "AAA National Records" – performances made in England or Wales by athletes born in England or Wales, or by bona fide members of clubs under the jurisdiction of the AAA whose fathers were born in England or Wales.

He died in Christchurch on 5 January 2018 after a short illness.

Wells was born at Friern Barnet in North London, the youngest child of Cecil Edward Wells and Ethel Alice Wells (née Cannon).

He lived initially in Finchley before moving at the age of two to High Barnet.