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Malcolm Nokes
	Malcolm Nokes in 1923
Personal information
Born	20 May 1897; Edmonton, Middlesex, Great Britain
Died	22 November 1986 (aged 89); Alton, Hampshire, England
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Discus throw, hammer throw
Club	Achilles Club
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	DT – 38.43 m (1927); HT – 52.75 m (1923)
Medal record
Representing Great Britain
Olympics
Representing England
British Empire Games

Malcolm Cuthbert Nokes MC MA BSc (20 May 1897 – 22 November 1986) was a British schoolteacher, soldier, research scientist and Olympic athlete, who competed in the hammer throw and discus throw.^[3]

Biography

He won the bronze medal in the hammer throw at the 1924 Summer Olympics. Four years later he finished eleventh in the 1928 Olympic hammer throw competition. In 1923 he beat the British hammer throw record, but did so in a demonstration rather than a competition, so his throw did not count for record purposes.^[4]

He won the gold medal for England in the 1930 British Empire Games in the hammer throw contest and finished fifth in the discus throw event. At the 1934 British Empire Games he won again the gold medal in the hammer throw competition.^[1]

Nokes was the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) Champion from 1923 to 1926 and placed second at the 1921 AAA Championships^[5]^[6] and 1922 AAA Championships and 1927–28.^[1] He was chairman of the AAA's Coaching Committee, and also a member of the Achilles Club.

He was a graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied chemistry and wrote a thesis on metaphenetidine. Nokes served in the Great War in the Royal Artillery in the trenches and then as an observer in the Royal Flying Corps. He was awarded a Military Cross for his service,^[1] becoming MC Nokes MC. In the Second World War he served as an officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Training Branch) while a schoolmaster.^[7]

He taught chemistry at Malvern College and later at Harrow School, where he was appointed Head of Science; he had come to the attention of Harrow when two schools colocated during the Second World War, although they did not merge. His practical demonstrations of the reaction of sodium with water were popular and famous among his pupils. These often entailed an explosion as MC Nokes put more than the recommended quantity of sodium into the water, and as the smoke cleared and noise subsided, MC Nokes would say "Note the small report." He was a member of the Science Masters' Association.^[8] Later he worked at Harwell and then was Head of Laboratories^[9] at CENTO Institute of Nuclear & Applied Science in Tehran. In retirement he lived in Honiton, Devon, and then in Alton, Hampshire. His nicknames included "Nokey", "Glaxo" and "Stally."

The chronology of his career was:

1909—16 schoolboy at Bishop's Stortford College (School House A)^[10]
1916—18 Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) & Royal Flying Corps (RFC), served on the Western Front. (August 1917 awarded MC)
1918—19 Royal Air Force, served on the Western Front
1921 Completed the shortened course in Chemistry at Oxford University, Magdalen College, with a distinction
1923 Awarded BSc. Chemistry, Oxford University, Magdalen College
1922—46 Malvern College, science teacher & head of department. (Housemaster 1932–40)
1946—57 Harrow School
1957—59 Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell (Isotope Division)
1959—66 CENTO Institute of Nuclear Science, Tehran, with status of Third Secretary in the British Embassy, Tehran
1966—69 Tehran University Institute of Nuclear Science ^[11]

During his time at Harrow, he served as a councillor in what is now Harrow London Borough Council, being elected as a Conservative for the ward of Harrow-on-the-Hill & Greenhill.^[12] During his service as a borough councillor, he proposed and was instrumental in bringing into service one of the first electric dust carts to be used in England, as part of the modernization of public health services in Harrow.

MC Nokes was one of eight children of Walter Nokes. His brothers included Gerald Dacre Nokes,^[13]^[14] a barrister and Indian judge, and George Augustus Nokes.

Publications

Modern Glass-working and laboratory techniques. London, 1937: William Heinemann.
Simple Experiments in the theory of flight. London, 1941: William Heinemann.
"Aircraft instruments" in Air training manual; a practical guide to aero-engines, aircraft construction, wireless and electricity, and air navigation for members of the A. T. C. and all interested in modern aeronautics. London, 1943: Odhams Press.
Science in education. London, 1949: Macdonald.
Demonstrations in modern physics. London, 1952: William Heinemann.
"Throwing the Hammer" (with Lt. Col. C. J. Reidy) in Athletics, by Members of the Achilles Club. [1] (Ed.: Meyer, HM). London, 1955: JM Dent & Sons.
Radioactivity measuring instruments: a guide to their construction and use. Melbourne, 1958: William Heinemann.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Malcolm Nokes". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
^ "Malcolm Nokes". trackfield.brinkster.net.
^ "Malcolm Nokes". Olympedia. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
^ "Record Hammer Throw". Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942), 22 August 1923, Page 12.
^ "Athletics". Northern Whig. 2 July 1921. Retrieved 30 November 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "Where Britain leads". Birmingham Daily Gazette. 4 July 1921. Retrieved 30 November 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ London Gazette, supplement, 21 May 1946. p. 2398. Royal Air Force service number 86246. Resigned commission 1 May 1946.
^ New Scientist. 26 December 1957. p. 7.
^ M.C. Nokes (1963) Demonstrations in Modern Physics. Heinemann Educational Books.
^ Bishop's Stortford College, Website, page "OS Olympians" Archived 18 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2 July 2015
^ Magdalen College, Oxford University, Archives of Magdalen College, "MC:P229 Photograph Album of Malcolm Cuthbert Nokes (1897–1986)" Archived 24 September 2016 at archive.today
^ Gray, Colin. Website "Elections in Harrow 1894–2015", Entry for 1954, Appendix A, Retrieved 2 July 2015, "Members of Harrow Council seeking Re-election, 1954" Archived 18 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Nokes, Gerald Dacre (1899-1971)". Idref.fr. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
^ Gerald Dacre Nokes