Barbara Hannah Anita Burke (13 May 1917 – 8 August 1998) was a British track and field athlete who competed mainly in the sprints and hurdles.
She was born in Norwood, Greater London.
Burke competed for Great Britain in the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany where she won the silver medal in the 4×100 metres with her team mates Eileen Hiscock, Violet Olney and Audrey Brown.
At the British Empire Games she competed for South Africa. In 1934 she was a member of the South African relay team which finished fourth in the 110-220-110 yards contest. In the 100 yards competition as well as in the 220 yards event she was eliminated in the heats. Four years later Burke won the 80 metres hurdles contest at the 1938 Games. In the 100 yards sprint she finished fourth and the 220 yards event she finished fifth.
Famous quotes containing the words barbara and/or burke:
“It was in and about the Martinmas time,
When the green leaves were afalling,
That Sir John Graeme, in the West Country,
Fell in love with Barbara Allan.”
—Unknown. Bonny Barbara Allan (l. 1–4)
“We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy to think all men virtuous. We must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked and corrupt.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)