Sidney Abrahams

Sir Sidney Solomon Abrahams (February 11, 1885 – May 14, 1957), nicknamed "Solly", was a British Olympic athlete and Chief Justice of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He was the older brother of famed Olympian Harold Abrahams.

Born in Birmingham, England, Abrahams competed for Cambridge University from 1904 to 1906. At the unofficial Olympiad, the 1906 'Intercalated Games' held in Athens, he finished fifth in the long jump with 6.21 metres. At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics he finished in eleventh place in the same event with 6.72 metres. At the 1913 Amateur Athletic Association Championships in London, he won the long jump with 6.86 metres. [http://www.gbrathletics.com/bc/bc1.htm]

Abrahams served as Chief Justice of Ceylon from 1936-1939. The most celebrated case he presided over was that of the Australian Mark Anthony Bracegirdle, whom the British Colonial Governor Sir Reginald Stubbs was attempting to have deported; the court ruled against the Governor. He was founder-president of the Medico-Legal Society of Ceylon.

Sidney Abrahams chaired a Committee on the Administration of Justice in Nigeria. He was later Senior Legal Assistant to the Commonwealth Relations Office, and played a major role in the suspension of the People's Progressive Party Government of Cheddi Jagan in British Guiana (Guyana) in 1953.

He was elected president of Britain's oldest athletic club, the London Athletic Club founded in 1863. Abrahams was the first Jew to hold the post.

Abrahams was married to Ruth Bowman and they had two children, Valerie and Anthony.

References

* [http://www.revolutionary-history.co.uk/otherdox/Whatnext/Bracegir.html T. Perera, 'The Bracegirdle Saga: 60 Years After', "What Next", No 5 1997]
* [http://www.jewsinsports.org/olympics.asp?sport=olympics&ID=318 "Abrahams, Sidney 'Solly"', Jews in Sport Online]
* [http://www.guyana.org/features/guyanastory/chapter133.html "American Involvement in Guyana in 1953", History of Guyana]