Cecil Alderson, from Cockfield, County Durham, was completing his National Service in the RAF in Wiltshire during the first London games. He and friend Fred Wilson planned to watch two days of athletics.
Fred had to pull out at short notice and couldn’t make it, but Cecil went along by himself and – despite the touting policies probably not being quite as stringent at the time – has kept the spare ticket for the past 63 years as a memento of the occasion.
Cecil told The Northern Echo: “We were based in Wiltshire, which wasn’t too far away from London, and me and Fred were both keen on athletics.
“When my friend dropped out, I decided to still go to both days. There is something about watching live sports which is electric and I had a very good time.”
Now he wants to swap his old standing ticket, which cost 3s 6d (17.5p in today’s money), for 2012 tickets, which could cost up to £2,000.
He added: “I would love to be able to go next year, if it is possible to use these tickets. There cannot be too many people who can say they have watched both the 1948 games and the 2012 games live.
“It is such a magnificent occasion. I am still very keen on watching athletics and my son lives down in London now, so I would be able to go.”
But a spokesman for the London 2012 organisers swiftly stopped Cecil in his tracks. He said: “If we do this for one person, we would have to do it for all the people, so with this in mind we can’t give away free tickets unfortunately.”
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