Ted Best
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| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's athletics | ||
| British Empire Games |
Edward Wallace Best (11 September 1917 – 01 June 1992) was an Australian athlete who competed in the third British Empire Games (forerunner of the modern Commonwealth Games), held in Sydney in February 1938. Best also held the office of Lord Mayor of Melbourne from 1969–1971.
At the 1938 Empire Games he won the bronze medal in the men's 100 yards event as well as in the 220 yards competition. He was also a member of the Australian relay team (along with Alf Watson, Teddy Hampson and Howard Yates) that won the bronze medal in the 4×110 yards contest.
Enlisting in the 2/22nd Battalion, Best was captured in New Britain (an island of New Guinea) by the Japanese in 1942. Photos held at the Australian War Memorial show him with other Allied prisoners of war at Zentsuji Camp at Shikoku, Osaka.
Educated at Wesley College, Melbourne, he was the son of AFL Fitzroy footballer Edward Best and was a nephew of politician Sir Robert Best.
Best passed away on 1 June 1992, aged 74, and was buried at the Anderson Creek Cemetery at Warrandyte. His wife Joan (nee Ramsay), with whom he had been married for 52 years, was buried beside him upon her passing in 2011.
External links
- Edward 'Ted' Best at Australian Athletics Historical Results
- Pages with script errors
- 1917 births
- 1992 deaths
- 20th-century mayors of places in Australia
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1938 British Empire Games
- Athletes from Melbourne
- Australian Army officers
- Australian Army personnel of World War II
- Australian male sprinters
- Australian prisoners of war
- Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Australia
- Mayors and lord mayors of Melbourne
- People educated at Wesley College (Victoria)
- World War II prisoners of war held by Japan
- Medallists at the 1938 British Empire Games
- Sportsmen from Victoria (state)
- 20th-century Australian sportsmen
- Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics