Richard Burnell

Richard Desborough Burnell, known as Dickie, was born in Henley-on-Thames on 26 July 1917 and died in Wallingford on 29 January 1995. He won the gold medal in the double sculls at the 1948 London Olympics with Bert Bushnell, having lost to France in the first round and then winning the repechage and semi-final before beating Denmark and Uruguay in the final. He and his father Charles, who won gold in the eights in 1908, are the only father and son to have both won Olympic rowing golds. Burnell rowed in the 1939 Oxford Boat Race crew, won the Wingfield Sculls in 1946, took Commonwealth Games bronze in the eights in 1950, and later became a leading rowing journalist and historian. He rowed for Leander Club.