BAWLA Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

1948 British Amateur Weight Lifter’s Association Total Medal

Posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2022 by John Wood

The British Amateur Weight-Lifter’s Association (BAWLA) was founded in 1910 and was the governing body of British amateur weightlifting; establishing rules and competition standards for a variety of lifts and feats for many decades to come. In the 1940’s, if you achieved the highest total in the three competitive Olympic lifts (Press, Snatch, Clean & Jerk), aside from fame and renown amongst your peers, you also got one of these nifty medals to wear on your lapel. This medal is shown here roughly three times larger than real life.

John Davis and BAWLA Plates

Posted on Friday, August 14th, 2015 by John Wood

Here’s a rare look at the great John Davis. Hard to tell were this shot is from though. This image was actually from a German tobacco card from 1952. If you take a close look, those are BAWLA (British Amateur Weight Lifting Association) Plates so it may be from the 1948 Olympics, held in London, where Davis took home the gold medal. Problem is, it doesn’t match up to any other shots we have seen from that time period. Either way, another look at Mr. Davis in action is always a good thing.

William Beattie

Posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 by John Wood

William Beattie lifting two blockweights

“The Scottish Apollo” William Beattie is shown here doing a bent-press with a pair of what are most likely 56-pound block weights. It should be noted that he fist swung them up to that position which is a fantastic feat of grip strength in holding the blocks together. Beatties was also fond of juggling these weights.

Unsurprisingly, Beattie was one of the many students of William Pullum and won the British Amateur Weightlifting Association (BAWLA) 12 stone Championship in 1929. Beattie went on to perform feats of strength and acrobatics with several circuses.

Tromp Van Diggelen ~ The South African Hercules

Posted on Thursday, December 29th, 2011 by John Wood

Tromp Van Diggelen presses a Barrel Barbell

Tromp Van Diggelen ~ The South African Hercules

Tromp Van Diggelen survived a sickly childhood to become a traveling performing strongman and one of the true unsung heroes of strength history. His performing feats were certainly impressive (such as the 210 pound “barrel lift” barbell press above) but it was his work behind the scenes which he should be remembered best.

It was Tromp Van Diggelen who discovered “Max Sick” and had him change his name to Maxick. Van Digglen also managed Josef Steinbach and Hermann Goerner and also helped found The British Amateur Weightlifting Association (BAWLA).