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By Andy Milroy
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Early conditioning can be very important. Wally Hayward came from a very tough background. His father, Wallace George Hayward, the son of a coal agent, had been born in Peckham in London, England in 1880, and emigrated to South Africa sometime between 1901 and 1906, in his early twenties. It looks probable he actually arrived soon after 1904 when the sand bar which had restricted Durban Harbour to bigger ships was dredged and deepened. This allowed the weekly Union Castle passenger ships from Southampton to enter the port. Bearing in mind Wallace’s later employment, and absence from Union Castle passenger lists, it is possible that he served as a barman on one of these passenger ships, departing the ship at Durban.
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After arriving in Durban he met Cornelia Gerhardina Jacoba Kritzinger. Cornelia was the youngest of eight children of an Afrikaner farmer, Louis Kritzinger and his wife Rachel. The Kritzinger family had a 3000 acre farm in Zululand, then part of the British province of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). The three sons worked on the farm with their father and the women had a whole raft of household tasks to complete – baking and preserving, making and repairing clothes, sewing, knitting and cooking. The sisters took in turn to tackle each of these tasks.
Cornelia was born in 1878 but by her mid-twenties she seems to have rebelled against this demanding regime and left the farm for the city life of Durban. Perhaps the demands and deprivation of the Second Boer War had been the final straw. Cornelia got a job as a cook in a children’s home and some time in 1906/07 she met the younger Wallace Hayward. He had become a barman in a Durban hotel and the couple later lived in one of the hotel rooms.
On the 10 July 1908 Wallace “Wally” Henry was born, named after his father and his grandfather, Henry Hayward. Two years later a sister Agnes was born, then two years after that a brother Horace and finally a sister Gertrude. The names chosen show a great deal about the dynamics between the couple. Basically the children were named after Wallace’s siblings. None of Cornelia’s family had a child named after them. This was in the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer War which had made such a horrendous impact on the Afrikaans. Wallace’s dominance in the naming of the children, may have been a response of a victor over the vanquished, but seems at the very least, insensitive.
When Wally was eighteen months old, the family moved to Johannesburg. Without skills, his father found it difficult to get work, and once again wound up as a barman in a hotel. Already a heavy smoker, he began drinking heavily. The Haywards had come to Johannesburg at the prompting of one of Cornelia’s sisters. The Kritzingers had been involved in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). Originally from Germany, three Kritzinger brothers came to South Africa in 1820 and two of them married Dutch women. A descendant, Pieter Hendrik Kritzinger, was a Boer general and guerrilla fighter during the Second Boer War.
Around 1914, when Wally was six, his father got a job working in a mine, eventually becoming a mine captain at the East Rand Propriety Mines, mining gold at Boksburg, a settlement not far from Johannesburg.
In 1916 Wallace enlisted in the South African Overseas Expeditionary Force (as the South African military contingent was called) and subsequently transferred to the Western Front in Flanders in Belgium. He was probably in the Third S.A. Infantry Regiment, raised in the Transvaal, that was part of the Somme Offensive in July that year.
They were caught in a German counter-offensive which became the notorious battle of Delville Wood. A German report recorded “Delville Wood had disintegrated into a shattered wasteland of shattered trees, charred and burning stumps, cratered thick with mud and blood, and corpses, corpses everywhere.” Out of 3,153 South African infantry engaged in that battle, only 780 reported for roll call after the engagement; reportedly some 2,536 were killed. So Wallace, unlike many others, survived the battle and in 1918 was able to return home. The great flu epidemic had hit Johannesburg in 1916-17 and Cornelia became seriously ill. Fortunately she too survived. In 1919 Wallace returned to the mine.
Soon after Wallace developed phthisis lung disease from the dust in the mine, aggravated by his heavy smoking and drinking. (Phthisis is better known today as tuberculosis.) He was forced to retire from the mine but was given a pension by the company. He was later able to get a job with a bakery but this meant he was away, sometimes for weeks. Increasingly the burden of raising four children was falling on Cornelia. Money was very tight; according to Wally, much of Wallace’s earnings went on drink.
A small holding, bought with some of the pension money, enabled Cornelia to put food on the table, or at least vegetables and fruit. A cow provided milk and hens, eggs. Cornelia’s childhood on a farm had prepared her well. As Wally later wrote she “was a very hard-working little lady.” Wallace’s condition deteriorated and after spending the last eight months of his life in bed he died in 1922, he was only around 42 years old.
In later life Wally was quite dismissive of Wallace. As I said, Wally felt Wallace had spent money, needed to feed and care for his family, on drink. However, it should be remembered that during the formative period of Wally’s life Wallace had either not been around, in the army or away working with the bakery, and then an invalid and bedridden before he died when Wally was only in his mid-teenage years.
Cornelia did not go to the funeral. Whether that was traditional or from choice is uncertain. In several cultures, women did not go to funerals. Cornelia obviously decided that the survival of the family was entirely up to her. Her attitude changed and her Kritzinger upbringing came to the fore. She had a leather strap with six tails made to discipline the boys, and Wally came in for the brunt of the punishment, often not without cause. But as the eldest child, the toughest tasks fell on him.
Growing up immediately after the Anglo-Boer wars in Johannesburg, with an Afrikaans mother and English father, Wally would have faced an identity crisis, particularly when the learning of Afrikaans became enforced at school. However, It is apparent that Wally got his steel and toughness from his mother and his Afrikaans heritage as well as from his childhood; the great determination wedded to a very methodical mind that was needed to survive and care for his mother and siblings. His mother’s strong discipline gave rise to his strong self-discipline.
The house they lived in had no water supply or electricity. Every morning Wally had to walk down the hill 300 yards to a well and bring 4-gallon tins of water back up again. On Monday (wash day) he had to carry double that amount. (One gallon of water would have weighed 10 lb or 4.5 kg – so 40 lb or 18 kg – and 80 lb or 36 kg each Monday!) This early uphill resistance training when Wally was in his mid-teens built the core strength and massive calf muscles that would distinguish him in later life.
Later they moved to a house with a deep pit for a toilet, a so-called long drop, with a bucket at the bottom. Wally was responsible for emptying that bucket each week and digging a hole in the garden to bury the “night soil”. In later life Wally attributed his large lungs in part to the fact he would hold his breath when he was tackling this very smelly job! Elsewhere such long drop toilets would just be left and eventually filled in with a new pit being dug. Possibly Cornelia saw the benefits of using the “night soil” as fertilizer to boost her crops!
School meant a three mile out and back each day. All this and a lively outdoor lifestyle meant Wally ran and walked everywhere. No car, no public transport. His strong relationship with his mother is shown when she would go to Johannesburg by tram. Wally would walk with her to the tram terminus and then run and walk home. He knew the time of the return tram journey from Johannesburg and would run and walk to meet her and walked home again with her. Eventually he would run the whole way to the terminus.
At the age of 16, Wally became an apprentice as a carpenter and builder. Wally was always a very methodical and meticulous individual in his work, and his mantra was “If you can’t do it properly, don’t do it at all.” His daughter later wrote “There has always been an obsessive determination to achieve the best, particularly where his running was concerned, and it is this plus his phenomenal ability which got him to the top.”
Pete Gavuzzi, who handled Wally during his highly successful 1953 tour in Britain, later told me that Wally would use different hand signals for the different drinks he needed, so that his handler had what he wanted ready when he arrived at the feeding station. This illustrates how his obsessive attention to detail impacted on his running, making it more efficient and effective. The fact he used to run and walk everywhere in his youth led to a neighbour asking if he would like to run for prospective diamond prospectors to peg claims for them in diamond fields, basically free-for-all races. Subsequently in 1927 Wally joined a boy’s club for runners.
Just two years later in 1929, he joined the Wanderers Running Club. In 1930 he won the South African 10 mile track championships in 56:28.4. Having received a booklet on the much longer Comrades Marathon, he was interested and entered, receiving a handwritten reply from Vic Clapham, the organiser. He was dismayed to discover it was 56 miles and told his mother he had not run half that distance! Despite that he entered and travelled by train to Durban, his birthplace. The 1930 race was on the up course, from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. He set out strongly and by halfway had a lead of 29 minutes over the second placed Phil Masterton-Smith.
Race organiser, Vic Clapham, told Wally to ease up otherwise he would not finish. By the end his 29-minute lead had largely evaporated, he really struggled over the closing stages, only winning by 31 seconds from Masterton-Smith. A broken bone in his foot and a faulty diagnosis of a “strained heart” meant Wally did not defend his Comrades title. In 1932 he was fit enough to win the national 10-mile track title for a second time (56:52:28). In 1936 in the trial for the Berlin Olympics his calf muscle seized up and he had to withdraw from the race.
In 1937 Wally won another South African track title at the shorter 4 miles event in 20:34.6. As a result, he was selected for the 1938 Sydney Empire Games for the South African team at 3 and 6 miles. He won a bronze medal at the longer distance (250 yards back from the winner, Cecil Matthews ENG (30:14.5)) and was 4th in the shorter (14:24.4).
In the Second World War he joined the South African Engineers Corps, reaching the rank of sergeant, serving in North Africa and Italy. He was awarded the British Empire Medal for bravery for going into a blazing building.
Wally returned home from the War in early 1946, winning the national marathon championships in 2:39:02 and the Jackie Gibson marathon in 2:43:52. In 1947 he damaged his right foot which put him out of action for four months. When he was able to return to training and racing, he won 10-mile cross-country races but when he again entered the Jackie Gibson marathon, the old leg trouble came back. He was out for three more months which put him out of contention for the 1948 RSA Olympic marathon trial. The problem was to continue on and off throughout 1948.
Wally’s leg problems might been triggered by his decision to attune himself to marathons after near twenty years of track running. He had changed his style from running on his toes to running flat footed. This caused him weeks of agony as his no longer young muscles got used to the change. He was 40 in 1948. If he had run in the London Olympic Marathon, he would not have been the oldest runner, Britain’s Jack Holden was two years older than Wally.
In 1949 he won the Pieter Korkie ultramarathon. He also won the Korkie the following year, in between finishing second in the 1950 SA Marathon (2:42:21) and winning the Comrades for a second time. In 1951 he won the Comrades again and in 1952 he unexpectedly won the South African Marathon Championships in 2:37:00.5 and the selectors extended the South African Olympic marathon team, somewhat controversially, to three.
Wally was 44 when he ran at Helsinki in the Olympic marathon. He was the oldest runner in the field, he was twenty years older than the Koreans Yoon-Chil Choi and Choong-Sik Choi, and Japanese Katsura Nishida. The French runner Muhammad Banaras had not been born when Wally won his first Comrades. Syd Luyt and Bill Keith had been chosen originally and Wally felt he needed to finish ahead of them. He was very fit but five days before, he developed a pain in his left calf. He was given a pain killing injection before the race, but it was not that effective. The calf gradually became more and more painful but the fierce Hayward determination kicked in and he finished 10th, with teammates Syd Lunt 11th and Bill Keith 17th. The great Czech runner Emil Zatopek won in 2:23, eight minutes ahead of Wally. That evening Wally was taken to hospital that evening with a swollen calf, reputedly the size of a rugby ball. He was in hospital for five or six days. The hospital doctor criticised the use of the painkilling injection before the race, saying it could have cost Wally his leg!
Deprived of success in the Olympics, Wally turned his attention to longer races. In 1953 he won the Comrades again, being the first man to break 6 hours on the down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban; his time 5:52:30 despite the finish being moved to Hoy Park, a mile further away.
Later that year Wally made another venture onto the world stage, this time at a distance where he was more pre-eminent. The London to Brighton running race had been revived in 1951 and was organised by the newly formed Road Runners Club. The previous year Derek Reynolds, who had earlier broken the world 50-mile track record, had run 5:52:22 for the 53 mile/84km course. Wally was staying with Arthur Newton at his home at 9 Cottingham Chase in Ruislip. Wally ran 5:29:40, breaking the race record by over 21 minutes, faster than Reynold’s track record for a three miles longer distance! (At 50 miles Wally was timed at 5:14:22)
When Arthur Newton had come over to England in the 1920s, it had been to seek verification and confirmation of his ultra feats at 50 miles and the Comrades by reproducing that form in England. In 1927 he had run 14:43 for 100 miles in Rhodesia but once again he returned to England to test himself on the other famous pedestrian road, that from London to Bath. In 1928 he improved his time to 14:22:10 on the run from Box in Wiltshire to Hyde Park Corner in London, reputedly 100 miles. In 1934 he had taken a final shot at the course recording 14:06.
When Hardy Ballington had come to England in 1937 with the intention of repeating the Newton feats he had won an international London to Brighton and set a new best time for the Box-Hyde Park Corner event of 13:21:19.
Just under a month after his run in 1953 Brighton, Wally set out from Box on his run to Hyde Park Corner in London. His competition included Derek Reynolds and the young Jackie Mekler. Wally was seconded by Pete Gavuzzi, Newton’s partner in the 1920s Pyle races across America. He reached 26 miles, close to the marathon, in 3:22:21, 50 miles in 6:01:31.
Wally was to take over an hour off Hardy Ballington’s time, running 12:20:28, despite having some problems with his leg.
Arthur Newton was still not content. He now suggested that Wally try and break his (Newton’s) 24 hour world best, set indoors in Hamilton in 1931. (152 miles 540 yards/245.113 km.) Neither Pete Gavuzzi, nor Wally were very enthusiastic but did not want to disappoint the venerable and iconic Newton.
A month later at the Motspur Park track in London, Wally tackled the 24 hours event. Before the Bath Road 100 miler the furthest he had run in training was 70 miles. There had been some talk about him competing against a relay of runners, but in the end, the redoubtable Derek Reynolds entered along with several other runners, including Les Griffiths and Stan Jones. Newton and Gavuzzi had planned with Wally his distance to cover in 5, 10 hours etc. It was planned that he reach the 100 miles under 13 hours.
The race went smoothly to 100 miles, (he reached 50 miles in 6:06:34) where a brief rest of ten minutes had been planned, but Wally was so tired at that point he wanted to come off for shower and a massage. It was only with great difficulty that after half an hour he was persuaded to continue. By then he had stiffened up and ran differently – walked for a while, then ran for awhile then walked again before he gradually ran heavily and awkwardly. He struggled on like this to the end of the 24 hours.
The effect of the extreme fatigue on Wally was shown when Pete Gavuzzi got him some tea in a paper cup. It was so hot that Pete could hardly bear to hold it. Wally complained it was cold and threw it away! Pete Gavuzzi later described Wally to me, some twenty-five years later. “He was a very serious man who rarely smiled and was very dedicated. He went to bed early and got up early. He labelled all his drinks carefully, keeping them in a box, all of them being natural ones.” He was in Pete’s words “a proper professional” in his attitude to his running. Coming from a veteran who had endured two hugely demanding Trans-American Pyle races, that was a great compliment.
Pete also reported on Wally’s food and liquid intake in the 24 hour. During the race Gavuzzi and Newton fed him on egg custard and rice. He also had warmed lemon juice laced with sugar and with salt to ward off cramp. (Enough salt to cover a sixpence.) He drank tea and coffee with plenty of sugar – he got through 2lb/1 kg of sugar during the race, with the occasional fizzy drink to wash his mouth out. During the race he lost 7lb/3.1 kg in weight.
On his return to South Africa Wally was to later win the 1954 Comrades in record time, his fifth win and the first man since Arthur Newton to hold both the Up and the Down Records in the Comrades.
Later that year he attempted to improve on his time from the Bath 100 miler, believed at the time to be a World best. The solo run was to be from Standerton to Germiston. The date chosen was the 17th July, in the middle of the South African winter. Wally downed a large steak, two eggs and 12 slices of brown bread and jam for breakfast! A strong gale was blowing which led to the suggestion by the judges that the attempt be postponed. Perhaps unwisely Wally opted to continue.
He took 6:20:35 for the first 50 miles and 27 minutes longer over the second. It was the fastest 100 mile to date in South Africa 13:08:08. With his 12:20:08 now known to be probably short, Wally’s mark was probably the best 100 mile road mark up until that time.
Read more details of Hayward’s 100-mile races.
Less than a month later came a hammer blow. The South African Athletic and Cycling Association declared Wally a professional. He had received £286 in grants, sponsorship and donations for his trip to England. The trip had actually cost close to £400. He had also been interviewed on Springbok Radio and his photo had appeared on a calendar. Wally had not received a penny in payment. Despite a petition, the Association would not change its opinion.
Twenty years later he was reinstated and soon made an impact on veteran events, including the Masters World Championships. Thirteen years after his reinstatement, Wally’s ambitions would return to the Comrades, Les Hackett became involved in running with the now quite elderly Wally but was under strict instructions not to talk to him. His hyper-strict regime involved running at a prescribed rhythm – he took two strides and inhaled, then took two more strides and exhaled. Talking disrupted that rhythm.
At the age of 79 Wally returned to the Comrades, running the Up race in 9:44:15. The following year he completed his final Comrades in 10:58:03 at the age of 80. After spending some years in a nursing home Wally died in 2006 aged 97.
Wally Hayward’s opportunities to shine on the world stage were largely restricted by injury or the War. He won FIVE Comrades Marathons but arguably could have won at least seven, but for his suspension for receiving money. His strength made him well suited to the 100 mile and 24 hours. Arguably in good conditions he could have got closer to 12 hours in the former event and 170 miles/273 km in the latter – a distance he was aiming for in 1953. His times in the London to Brighton were to be surpassed by Tom Richards in 1955, who reached 50 miles in 5:12:37 and the finish in 5:27:24. Richards was a former top class marathon runner, missing out on the gold medal for the Olympic event by just sixteen seconds in 1948. Interestingly he was around the same age as Wally, when he had run the Brighton, born in 1910. Subsequently Ron Hopcroft surpassed his Bath Road 100 mile time in 1958, running 12:18:26, running from Hyde Park Corner to Box. Wally’s 24 hour mark lasted longer, only being surpassed by Ron Bentley in 1973, close to twenty years later. As a South African record it was to last sixty years until finally surpassed by Johan Van Der Merwe in 2013!
Wally’s character and future careers were molded by the demand of his childhood, his discipline and determination perhaps reflecting his Afrikaans/Boer heritage on his mother’s side. His impact in the early 1950s when he appears in England, breaking three well established distance records before disappearing back to South Africa, gave the impression of a 46 year old super human! An impression reinforced when he finished the 89 km Comrades Marathon at the age of 80!
Author’s Note
I would like to thank Riel Hauman and Peter Lovesey for their help with this article.