ABSTRACT
Robbie Brightwell was born in Afghanistan in 1939, though his birth was registered in Rawalpindi in what is now Pakistan. Returning to England without much of an education, he was encouraged by the headmaster of his secondary modern school to take the ‘13 plus’ examination and moved to Shrewsbury Technical College and then to Loughborough College where he studied from 1959 to 1962. His first job was as a teacher at Tiffin School from 1963 to 1966, his second as a lecturer at Loughborough from 1966 to 1972, where he also gained an MSc. He left education to become Managing Director of Adidas UK from 1973 to 1980 and then was Managing Director of Coq Sportif UK from 1980 to 1985. His later career has been as Managing Director of three companies involved mainly with fishing tackle. Robbie Brightwell's original sporting enthusiasm was football, though after an injury he concentrated on athletics. He started as a long-jumper and excelled at a variety of events, eventually settling for the 400 m. He won the championships at the European Games in 1962 and the World Games in 1964 at this event, and in the Tokyo Olympics of 1964 he came fourth in the individual event and won a silver medal in the relay. He retired from competitive athletics when he married in late 1964.
