Researching George Kerr

In 1962, he became the first Jamaican athlete to have the national flag flown in recognition of winning a gold when he won double gold in the 400 m and 800 m at the Central American and Caribbean Games held at Kingston's National Stadium. At the 1964 Olympics, representing Jamaica, he finished fourth both in the 800 m and the 4 × 400 m relay. He broke the Olympic record for the 800 m in the semi-finals but lost the bronze by less than one-tenth of a second with 1:45.9, his fastest ever time.

Kerr won five medals at three Commonwealth Games. In 1958 he won a bronze in the 4 × 440 yards relay. He won gold medals in the 440 yards and in the 4 × 440 yards relay and silver in the 880 yards in 1962. His final medal, a bronze for the 880 yards, came in 1966 in Kingston, Jamaica.

On 4 June 2012, Kerr had a heart attack and underwent heart surgery at the University Hospital of the West Indies. He remained in the intensive care unit until he succumbed to complications. He had a wife, Fay Kerr, five children, Karyn, Margaret, Roger, Candice and William and seven grandchildren.

In 1957, he won the gold medal in the European Judo Championships in Rotterdam. In 2002 he was named one of the inaugural members of the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame. In 2001 he became president of the British Judo Association.

In 2010 he was awarded the grade 10th Dan by the International Judo Federation (IJF) for international services to judo. Having been preceded by Frenchman Henri Courtine (2007) and followed by Japanese American Yoshihiro Uchida (2014) and Italian Franco Capelletti (2017), Kerr currently is one of only four living IJF jūdan. He is the second Briton after Charles Palmer to have gained this rank in Judo. IJF judo dan rank awards are, however, not officially recognized by the Kodokan Judo Institute in Japan, and currently, Uchida (Kodokan 7th dan, 1983) and Courtine (Kodokan 6th dan, 1968) are the only IJF judan who concomitantly also hold a Kodokan judo rank of 6th dan or higher.

Kerr received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2010

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours.

He also received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, in January 2011 after being named in Emperor Akihito's November 2010 honours list, due to his ongoing contribution to judo and to relations between the UK and judo's country of origin, Japan. Masataka Tarahara, Japan’s Consul-General in Scotland, presented him in Edinburgh with Japan’s equivalent of a CBE.

He has authored the books Judo: basic training manual for beginners (W. Foulsham, 1964), Judo as part of the 'Flying Start' series (Hodder Wayland, 1991) and, with his coaching-charge twice Olympic gold-medallist Peter Seisenbacher, Modern Judo: Techniques of East and West (Crowood Press, 1991).

He now has a new special Edition Autobiography on sale called - My Journey to the 10th Dan. A limited number of 500 books are available with more standard finish books being available after the World championships in Sept. These are available from www.georgekerr10thdan.com