This 4th International Games for the Deaf gilt leather-bound book was presented to Sir Noel Curtis-Bennett, K.C.V.O., the chairman of the Games’ Executive Committee, and is a unique book on the Games held in London in 1935. This contains, as is believed, the signatures of all of the participating international athletes including the Executive Committee. The page shown has some of the signatures of the Great Britain participants.
Where was the 4th International Games for the Deaf held?
During August 17th – 24th 1935 The British Deaf Amateur Sports Association staged the 4th International Games for the Deaf for the first time in London, and fourteen countries and 298 competitors took part. It was a great triumph for Great Britain as it came top in the Games with 206 points with 46 points gained by the tennis players winning six medals and that had helped enormously. This book later surfaced in the United States of America and in 2005 a deaf American, Ms Darol F. Nance sent it to her deaf English friend Mrs. Cicely Melvin and she in turn gave it to Richard Goulden in 2006 before her demise. He donated the book to the BDHS in 2011. Additional interesting information: the Austrian section contains the signature of David Stellman who emigrated to Britain in 1934 and died in August 2018 at the grand old age of 103! He was not actually a participant but a spectator and his name is not in the list of Austrian participants in the 1935 Games Programme.