1948 London Olympic Games

Administrative / Biographical History

Before 1948, London had been suggested as a venue for the 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games. The British Olympic Association set up an Investigation Committee whose remit was to explore the practicality of such plans, for instance estimating the likely costs based on previous hosting cities' expenditure and proposing possible venues. Although London was awarded the Olympic Games for 1944, these plans were put on hold due to the intervention of the Second World War. David George Brownlow Cecil, Lord Burghley, Chairman of the BOA, met with the President of the IOC in October 1945 to petition for London to host the Games and in early March 1946 the Games were again allotted to London. That month the BOA established the 'Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad', a company of limited liability whose task it was to organise and manage the 1948 Games.