George Lister

George Lister was born in Perth, Ontario in 1886 where he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) at Smiths Falls near Ottawa. Lister became the chief clerk in the CPR civil engineering department before leaving to work at the contracting firm Wells & Grey Ltd. In 1908 he was selected to represent Canada in the marathon at the London Olympics. The race was run on a very hot day in England with half of the field not finishing the course. Lister was 27th and last to complete the distance, finishing in a time of 4-22:45.0, around 90 minutes behind the winning time of Johnny Hayes.

In 1916 Lister enrolled with the 134th Battalion to fight in World War I but was later transferred to the Military Police in Toronto. Once the war was over he founded his own valuation company in Toronto, which he ran for more than 30 years. He maintained a link to his athletics past by serving as a member of the YMCA Physical Education Committee for 25 years. Lister was also a keen conservationist and was involved in a project to restock streams to help with fish breading.

Personal Best: Mar – unknown.