Originally a footballer and athlete Charlie Davey didn’t take up competitive cycling until his late teens. After showing good form during 1911-12 he was chosen for the English team, one of three teams that represented Great Britain and Ireland, for the 1912 Olympic road race. Although his time was not counted towards the team total he was part of England’s silver medal winning squad.
Arguably the best years of his career were lost to World War One where Davey served with the newly formed Royal Naval Air Service in the Orkney Islands.
He returned to competition after the war and narrowly missed selection; he was named first reserve, for the 1920 Games in Antwerp. Selected for the British team for the inaugural World Amateur Road Race in 1921 he finished five minutes behind race winner Gunnar Sköld but his time was good enough to take the bronze medal. Davey equalled this feat the following year on home soil when British riders finished in the first three positions. In 1923 at the advanced age of 36 he signed a contract to ride professionally for the New Hudson Bicycle Company. He competed in the prestigious Bol d’Or race in Paris and set a number of long distance place-to-place records in his home country. Davey continued to compete until he was forty and afterwards retained his links with cycling as a judge and time-keeper for the next thirty years
Great Britain