History rewritten with wrestler Louis Bruce revealed as Britain’s first black Olympian

Kingston’s first tram in 1906. Next to Kingston’s mayor Henry Charles Minnitt at the front of the tram is Louis Bruce, a senior London United Tramways motorman and personal driver to the company’s managing director. Photograph: London Transport Museum

A feat of detective work – plus the chance discovery of dozens of well-preserved documents at a wrestling club in Wigan – has unlocked a remarkable secret that rewrites more than 100 years of British Olympic history, the Guardian can reveal.

The sprinter Harry Edward, who won two bronze medals at the 1920 Antwerp Games, has long been lauded as Britain’s first black Olympian. But now a team of researchers has found that Edward’s achievement was beaten by 12 years by a long forgotten black heavyweight wrestler named Louis Bruce, who reached the second round of the 1908 Olympics in London.