William Titt

William Titt was the son of a Jamaican-born seafarer, William John LeBeau, who died when William was four-years-of-age in 1885. His mother Sarah re-married the following year, and William took the surname of his stepfather, Charles Titt. He only reverted back to using LeBeau after the death of his stepfather in 1938.

A member of the Cardiff St. Saviour’s Gymnastic Club, Titt was on their team that reached the final of the Welsh Team Championship in 1904 and 1905, when they beat Newport Athletic Club, but was on the losing side when beaten by Powell’s Tillery in 1906. Two years later he appeared in the London Olympics and, at Stockholm in 1912, he was one of three South Wales gymnasts in the Great Britain squad that won the bronze medal. Titt finished third in the Welsh Individual Championships in 1909, and that same year captained St. Saviour’s in the final of the Welsh section of the Adams Shield for the British Team Championship, but they lost to Abertillery. By profession, Titt, who was also a fine boxer and hurdler, was a South Wales coal merchant.

Titt’s great-granddaughter Becky Brunning was an actress who played the part of Lindsay Lucas in the popular British television drama series Broadchurch. She also wrote and appeared in the 2012 short film The Olympic Gene: Going for Silver, which referenced their family relationship in comedic terms.