Ran Laurie

Dr. William George Ranald Mundell Laurie, known as Ran Laurie (4 June 1915 – 19 September 1998) was a British rowing champion and Olympic gold medallist.

Rowing career
Ran Laurie was born in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire in 1915. A member of Leander rowing club, Laurie began his rowing career at Monkton school, and continued rowing when he attended Selwyn College, Cambridge in 1933. At Cambridge he rowed in three Boat Races, alongside Jack Wilson, who was to become his rowing partner later in their careers. At the 1936 Olympics, he rowed as Stroke in Great Britain's eight, the team eventually finishing in fourth place. Together, Laurie and Wilson won the Silver Goblets at Henley Royal Regatta in 1938.

After war interrupted their rowing careers, Laurie and Wilson returned to Henley in 1948, once again winning the Silver Goblets. This was followed a month later by a gold medal in the coxless pairs event at the 1948 Olympics in London, rowing on their familiar Henley course. It was described by Laurie as "the best row we ever had". Laurie and Wilson were the best pair of their generation, and it was not until a young Steve Redgrave and Andy Holmes won the Olympics in 1988 that Britons once more excelled in this most difficult of boats to race. Laurie and Wilson were known as the "Desert Rats" because of their sojourn in the Sudan. Their boat is now on show at the River and Rowing Museum at Henley-on-Thames, hanging above the boat that won the 1996 Olympics with Redgrave and Pinsent. .

Laurie was elected a steward of Henley Royal Regatta in 1951, and also served as a Henley umpire. He sat on Henley's management committee between 1975 and 1986.

Colonial and medical career
Laurie joined the Sudan Political Service in 1936. In 1954 he qualified as a doctor, working for thirty years as a General Practitioner in Blackbird Leys, Oxford. He also chaired Oxford's Duke of Edinburgh Awards Committee between 1959 and 1969, and chaired the Oxford branch of Save the Children from 1986 to 1989. In 2005, it was proposed that the newly-refurbished health centre in Blackbird Leys be named after Dr Laurie in recognition of his service to the local community ; however it was felt that the local community should make the decision regarding the new health centre's name, and it was subsequently named The Leys, after the local area, when it opened in February 2006.

Personal life
Ran Laurie was married to Patricia Laidlaw from 1944 until her death from motor neurone disease in 1989. They had two daughters and two sons, the youngest of whom is the actor and writer Hugh Laurie. Both sons followed in their father's footsteps, rowing for Selwyn College and Cambridge University. Ran Laurie remarried in 1990 to Mary Arbuthnott and died in 1998 at the age of 83.