David Jeacock
England Athletics was saddened to hear of the recent passing of David Jeacock, former solicitor to EA and long-standing General Secretary of the British Athletics League. David’s funeral took place on Thursday 4th April.
A member of Swindon AC, David was Legal Officer of the BAL for over 40 years and was instrumental, alongside others, in effecting changes to the governance of the sport in the 1980s.
In 1997 he became General Secretary of the league, working alongside Chairman Mike Heath, and was responsible for the development of the league’s rules and constitution and overall administration. David’s reputation among member clubs was as one of even handedness and fairness and even clubs who disagreed with his implementation of the rules respected the time and effort he dedicated to ensuring that the competition existed for clubs an their athletes.
In early part of this decade, David acted as solicitor for England Athletics and outside of the sport he worked with British Weightlifting and Wheelchair basketball, as well as the team Stoke Mandeville. He was also a pioneer of the implementation of anti-doping rules in both athletics and elsewhere.
For many clubs, David will always be known as the BAL’s secretary and he rightly prided himself on delivering effective administration for the people for whom he saw himself primarily working: athletes.
He will be greatly missed by all who worked with him.