Diane Leather

Leather was born in Streetly, Staffordshire.[2] She was one of six children, and the only daughter, of Mabel (née Barringer) and James Leather, a surgeon.[2] She played lacrosse as a child, and watching the 1952 Summer Olympics sparked her interest in athletics.[3] While studying chemistry at the Birmingham College of Technology (now Aston University), she joined the Birchfield Harriers athletics club in Birmingham and was coached by Doris Nelson Neal.[4] She later worked as an analytical chemist at the University of Birmingham.[5]

Neal saw that Leather had the potential to perform well in longer races, however at the time the longest recognised event in women's athletics was the 200-metre race. This limit had been adopted after false media reports that six women collapsed at the finish line in an 800-metre race at the 1928 Olympics.[6][7][8] Nevertheless, Neal coached Leather for racing the mile and the following year, she broke the world best time, running a mile in 5:02.6. Her achievement was labelled "world best" rather than "world record" by the IAAF as the distance was not officially recognised for a further 15 years.

On 29 May 1954, Leather broke the 5-minute barrier with a time of 4 minutes and 59.6 seconds during the Midlands Women's AAA Championships at Birmingham's Alexander Sports Ground.[9][10] Coincidentally, it was only 23 days since Roger Bannister had become the first man to run a sub 4-minute mile, 100 km away. In 1955, Leather broke the mile record by a further 15 seconds, achieving her personal best of 4:45.[11] This remained the world record for seven years until New Zealand's Marise Chamberlain ran 4:41.4 in 1962.[3]

Leather won two European Championship silver medals at 800 metres: at the 1954 event in Bern, she was second behind the Soviet Union's Nina Otkalenko in 2:09.8, while at the 1958 event in Stockholm, she was second to another Soviet, Yelizaveta Yermolayeva, running 2:06.6. She was also a two-time winner of the women's race at the International Cross Country Championships in 1954 and 1955, and won the national cross country women's title four times.[3][12]

She married Peter Charles, an industrial engineer turned financial consultant, in 1959, and competed in her final competition, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, as Diane Charles.[13][4] She was eliminated in the heats of the 800 metres, in 2:14.24. She held the British record for 1500m for 11 years and held claim to the world mark in the mile for 8 years in total.

Charles retired from athletics at the age of 27 and lived in Cornwall for the remainder of her life.[3] She worked for child protection agencies and was a volunteer for Cruse Bereavement Care and Samaritans.[2] She was married for more than 55 years—her husband died in 2017[4]—and had four children and 13 grandchildren.[14] She died on 5 September 2018,[2] aged 85,[1][14] in Truro, Cornwall. She had recently suffered a stroke.[4]

• Diane Leather at Olympics.com
• Diane Leather at Olympedia
• "Almost the 5 Minute Mile" Pathe newsreel featuring Leather, 31 May 1954