Roger Bannister
1929–2018 · Athlete, neurologist
First man under four minutes for the mile — Iffley Road, Oxford, 6 May 1954, 3:59.4. Read medicine at Exeter, later Master of Pembroke. Buried at Wolvercote.
Roger Gilbert Bannister was a medical student at Exeter College when, on the evening of 6 May 1954, on a cinder track at the Iffley Road sports ground, he became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes — 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, paced by Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway in front of a crowd of about 3,000 spectators. The record stood for forty-six days; the achievement, and the place, became permanent.
Bannister retired from competitive running before the end of 1954 and spent the next forty years practising medicine in the field of neurology. He served as Master of Pembroke College from 1985 to 1993, was appointed CBE and later knighted, and died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on 3 March 2018. He is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery.
Sources: Wikipedia: Roger Bannister · Wikipedia: Wolvercote Cemetery
Last verified: Sat May 02 2026 01:00:00 GMT+0100 (British Summer Time)