- Charles Burnell
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Olympic medal record Men's Rowing Gold 1908 London eights Charles Desborough Burnell OBE, DSO (13 January 1876 – 3 October 1969) was a British rower who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics.
Burnell was born at Beckenham, then in Kent. He was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, and was a member of the winning Oxford crews in the Boat Races of 1895, 1896, 1897 and 1898. He became a member of Leander Club and was in the Leander crew which won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta for four consecutive years from 1898 to 1901. He was also a three-time winner of the Stewards' Challenge Cup at Henley. In 1908 he was a crew member of the Leander eight, which won the gold medal for Great Britain rowing at the 1908 Summer Olympics.[1]
During World War I. Burnell served as a captain in the Rifle Brigade and won a DSO in 1918. After the war, he rejoined the family firm of stockbrokers in the City. He was Chairman of the Wokingham Rural District Council for 35 years. In 1954 he was awarded the OBE for public service in Berkshire.
Burnell died at Blewbury, Oxfordshire at the age of 93. Burnell married Jessie Hulke on 13 October 1903, in Kensington, London. They had four children and their son Dickie Burnell was also an Olympic rower.
See also
- List of Oxford University Boat Race crews
References
External links
Categories:- 1876 births
- 1969 deaths
- Old Etonians
- Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
- British rowers
- Olympic rowers of Great Britain
- Rowers at the 1908 Summer Olympics
- Olympic gold medalists for Great Britain
- Stewards of Henley Royal Regatta
- Rifle Brigade officers
- British Army personnel of World War I
- Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- Olympic medalists in rowing
- British Olympic medalist stubs
- British rowing biography stubs
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