In his heyday, he was  the most powerful man in world sport, but in a peculiarly British way.

Lord Burghley, Marquess of Exeter, was President of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and a fierce defender of the amateur code. He had been a world class athlete and Olympic 400 metres hurdles champion.

"Few men made such a vast contribution to the Olympic Movement and amateur sport or tried to remain so loyal to the concept of Baron Pierre de Coubertin," wrote The Guardian's John Rodda of the man who had dominated British sport for almost half-a-century.

He was born David George Brownlow Cecil in 1905 , the year the British Olympic Association (BOA) was formed and that was appropriate. He held the offices of chairman and President of the BOA, one of very few to do so, and was also president of the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) for 40 years. Even his Rolls Royce had the number plate AAA1.

He could trace his lineage back to Elizabethan times, and on the sports field he was the ultimate gentleman amateur. "He always seemed to have complete control of his nerves and has the happy gift of being able to talk about any subject under the sun, the farther removed from Athletics the better," said Bob Tisdall, his successor as Olympic 400m hurdles champion.

The IOC noted "he fought valiantly to keep amateur sports amateur, trying to instill in athletes’ minds ,the  glory of competing for sportsmanship and not for money.

Burghley was the only one of the three leading characters who lived to see the release of the Oscar winning "Chariots of Fire", set at the 1924 Paris Olympics. In the film  his part was re-christened "Lord Lindsay" and played by Nigel Havers (pictured). As producer Lord Puttnam will cheerfully admit, the film changes some details for dramatic effect.Burghley is actually  thought to have trained with matchboxes on hurdles, not glasses of champagne, evidently unwilling to waste a drop.

Abrahams and His Lordship never raced around the Great Court of Trinity together, but Burghley did beat the  clock three years after the Paris Games.

His diary entry for June 7 1927 recorded  "ran round Trinity Court on the flags while the clock struck 12, doing it  before the one but last stroke, time 42 and a half seconds." In the film he bursts in to a meeting with the Prince of Wales  and suggests that Eric Liddell takes his place in the 400m. The 19-year-old Burghley competed only at the 110m hurdles in 1924

By 1928 in Amsterdam he went to the Olympics as AAAs champion and lined up in the final of the 400m hurdles. Drawn on the outside lane, Burghley went off well and at the last hurdle produced "a desperate turn of speed when his feet once more touched the ground".

His winning time  53.4sec was a new Olympic record.

On his return to London, he was mobbed by crowds and is reported to have said: "What a reception! I would rather face a hundred champions than a crowd like that."

Two years later, in Hamilton, Ontario for the inaugural  British Empire Games (now the Commonwealth Games)  he won three gold medals and stood  for the first time on a  medal  podium, an innovation later "borrowed" by the Olympic Games.

His third and final Olympics were in Los Angeles  in 1932.  He demonstrated  sportsmanship by parading in the long and tiring Opening Ceremony, simply because he became aware that his closest rivals were doing the same. He finished fourth in the 400m hurdles  final , and also reached the 110m hurdles final and won 4x400m silver. The following year, he became a member of the IOC at the age of 28. He also went into Parliament as the Honourable Member for Peterborough, he was sent to Bermuda during World War Two as Governor General. When London was awarded the 1948 Olympics with little more than two years to prepare, Burghley became chairman of the organising committee, a role filled for the London 2012 Games by Sebastian Coe, another Lord.

It was a measure of his success that on July 29 1948, he welcomed King George VI to Wembley Stadium on a scorching day to open the games of the XIV Olympiad. Dubbed the "Austerity Games," they were staged on a shoestring with no new facilities built. "The Olympic spirit fired all those who worked in the organisation." he said. "They contributed their uttermost to create a great and glorious landmark."

He also wrote the farewell message for the Wembley scoreboard. "The Olympic Spirit which has tarried here a while, sets forth once more."

Burghley had replaced Sigfrid Edstrom as President of the IAAF in 1946 .Many believe it was down to  his encouragement that the Soviet Union made their return to international athletics. "He possessed tremendous authority," wrote Lord Killanin, the IOC President from 1972 until 1980. "He would have all the support of the Eastern European countries, they liked him and treated him with respect because he was an athlete."

It wasn’t just in the East either. When the British Army of the Rhine lobbied for West Germany to enter the 1952 Olympics, they wrote to Burghley, "In the earnest hope that you will use your best endeavours  to obtain agreement." By now an IOC Executive Board member - the last Briton to hold such a lofty position in world sport until Sir Craig Reedie was elected to the same position Copenhagen earlier this month -  in 1952 Burghley stood  for the Presidency against the American businessman Avery Brundage, another who saw the amateur code as sacrosanct. The members went with Brundage by a vote of 30-17.

Burghley became Marquess of Exeter in 1956 and challenged for the leadership again in 1964. This time, the vote was conducted by postal ballot and the figures were not revealed by the IOC to apparently to save the losing candidate any "embarrassment". Brundage won again.
"At 59 which he was then, he could have given invaluable service to the IOC over the next eight to 12 years," observed Killanin. "His knowledge of athletics and the Olympic movement was immense. Personally I think it was a great pity that he lost."

Exeter remained a vice-president of the IOC until 1966 and served on the Executive Board until 1970. He was still in charge of the IAAF and 40 years after his own triumph he presented an Olympic gold medal to another British 400m hurdles gold medallist, David Hemery.

He remained President of the BOA until after the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but his last appearance on an Olympic stage came in 1981 at the IOC Congress and Session in Baden Baden, a few weeks before his death. This was where the IOC opened the way for  professionals. Olympians had no longer to be "amateur" but simply "eligible". It was farewell to the world in which Exeter had lived his sporting life. As he said goodbye, he received the Olympic Order in gold.

The IOC president of the day Juan Antonio Samaranch offered his own tribute. "It is difficult to put into words the importance of Lord Exeter’s role...He was overwhelming and influential in his dedication to athletics. He dedicated his life to the world of sports and actively promoted the ideals of amateurism and Olympism for more than 50 years."

Philip Barker, a freelance journalist, has been on the editorial team of the Journal of Olympic History and is credited with having transformed the publication into one of the most respected historical publications on the history of the Olympic Games. He is also an expert on Olympic Music, a field which is not generally well known.