Barbara Holliday

Barbara Cecilia Mary Holliday after marriage Barbara Gray (1908 - 1968) was a British track and field athlete specialized in the long jump and high jump during the 1920s, the early era of women's athletics. In the standing long jump she was world record holder and bronze medalist at the second Women's World Games in 1926.

Biography
Career
In June 1921, when she was 14-years old, she competed in Manchester in a 15-mile race walk described as the "girls' first annual walking championship". She finished second in a time of 2 hours 2min and 28sec, behind the 15-year-old Lillian Salkeld.

In 1926 she competed at the 1926 Great Britain Women's World Games trials where she won the high jump event and finished second in the standing long jump. As a result she qualified to represent the United Kingdom at the 1926 Women's World Games in Gothenburg. She won the bronze medal in the standing long jump event with a jump of 2.37 metres behind Japanese Kinue Hitomi and Czechoslovak Zdena Smolová.

On 20 July 1927, she improved the world record in the standing long jump with 2.57 meters during a competition in London.

Personal life
Holliday was born in 1908 and lived in Moss Side, Manchester. She married Scottish general practitioner James Gray and lived in Hayling Island in Hampshire county. The couple had 2 children: Nigel Gray and playwright, memoirist and university lecturer Simon Gray (1936–2008). Holliday-Gray died in 1968.

References

Category:1908 births
Category:British long-distance runners
Category:British long jumpers
Category:British high jumpers
Category:Sportspeople from Manchester
Category:World record holders
Category:1968 deaths