Former Portadown College pupil Lady Mary Peters recalls 'a load of sand' as a 16th birthday gift which catapulted her to Olympian stardom

Lady Mary, now aged 84, recalls vividly the ‘not very popular gift’ arriving at their Portadown home and, with neighbours Billy Gordon and his son Cliff (also a keen athlete), they created a high jump area in the nearby field to practice.

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The daughter of Hilda and Arthur, Mary attended Portadown College from 1954 to 57 and has very fond and vivid memories from her schooldays there, memories she is keen to share with former classmates and pupils at the Reunion Gala Dinner in the Seagoe Hotel on March 8, celebrating the school’s centenary.

Best known for her Olympic success in the 1970s, Lady Mary Peters has been at the backbone of supporting sports across Northern Ireland since, even setting up the Mary Peters Trust which has helped countless athletes able-bodied and disabled, male and female for decades.

The young Mary arrived in Ballymena from Liverpool aged 11 and spend a couple of years at Ballymena Academy. Her father worked for the Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society and, after another promotion, was sent to Portadown.

At Portadown College Mary recalls one teacher, Mr Woodman, who ‘changed her life forever’. “He introduced me to an athletic coach when I was playing cricket very badly one day. He said, you should be over with the boys doing athletics. That’s when my opportunity to do athletics expanded. There was a former pupil, Kenneth McClelland, who took the boys for athletics and he started coaching me.

"He asked me about doing a pentathlon one day. At school we only did the 100 yards, the 220 yards, the high jump and the long jump so I had to learn to put the shot and do the hurdles. My dad made me hurdles out of canes. I started putting the shot off grass which everybody did at that time in Northern Ireland. There weren’t any shot circles in NI at that time but internationally they put the shot off a cement circle.

"My dad was very enthusiastic as he didn’t have the chance to do sport and my brother John was also interested. For my 16th birthday my dad bought me a load of sand,” Mary revealed adding that a neighbour, Billy Gordon and son Cliff, also keen on athletics, helped set up a high jump in the field beside the house. “We practised there and we had lots of fun and then I needed to put the shot off a shot circle so I got a load of cement for my 17th birthday,” said Mary. “That wasn’t very popular as you can imagine,” she giggled.

Very soon Mary was breaking the NI record for shot put but each time she did, the shot was a little light so couldn’t be held as a record. “Dad went to the local foundry and got me a proper shot made. So I went and competed in my first Pentathlon when I was 16.

Thelma Hopkins, who was an Olympic athlete and hockey player for Ireland and Maeve Kyle another international athlete and hockey player – they were first and second and I was third. It was the first time they had a Pentathlon in NI. Then my Dad paid for me to go to the British Championships and I got second there.”

Lady Mary remembers the ‘notoriety’ she felt at that time recalling how the Headmaster used to read out the sports results on a Monday morning at Assembly. “I had been a very shy and introverted little girl and suddenly I was blossoming as I was being noticed,” she said.

Sadly her mother Hilda died when she was attending Portadown College, however Lady Mary remembers the kindness of those at the school including Mr Woodman. “He encouraged me and then in my final year at school I was made Head Girl. Both he and my father wanted me to go to PE College at Jordanstown because of my sporting ability but I wanted to be a Domestic Science teacher and, of course, sport was my hobby. I did it for fun. So against their wishes, I did go to Belfast College of Technology and trained to be a teacher.”

Mary taught for four years but recalls how the influence of being Head Girl, a hockey captain and athletics captain ‘helped build my character’. “It made me a much stronger person, having lost Mum, Dad married again and then he and my step-mother went back to England and my brother John went to Australia,” said Lady Mary. Friends she made during her early sporting career are still friends to this day and her days at Portadown College remain a significant memory.

She recalls Gloria Hunniford at school in the year below. “I knew her then and I still meet up with her at events in England. She hasn’t changed at all. She’s still the Gloria that I knew.”

“I had great friendships at school,” she said, recalling girls she played hockey and athletics with and Bert Wilson, who died this year, and who was Deputy Head Boy. She also recalled her former classmate and former Portadown Times journalist, Victor Gordon with whom she kept up a friendship.

"I have such happy memories of my days at Portadown College,” said Lady Mary. When asked what advice she would have for young people now, she said: “Follow your dreams and enjoy what you’re doing.”

Mary is very keen to catch up with lots of her old friends from her Portadown College days at the reunion gala dinner celebrating the school’s centenary at the Seagoe Hotel on Friday 8th March ’24.

In addition to special guests Lady Mary Peters and Ms Gloria Hunniford OBE, a number of former students have confirmed their attendance. TV presenter Peter Cardwell will act as MC and proceeds from the evening will support the College School Fund. Tickets can now be purchased by clicking here until 11pm this Sunday, 25th February 2024.