Honours
Abrahams was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1957. Abrahams has been recognized with an English Heritage Blue plaque at his former home in Golders Green in northwest London, which was unveiled by his daughter Sue Pottle (wife of Pat Pottle) and nephew Tony Abrahams. Abrahams lived at Hodford Lodge, 2 Hodford Road, from 1923 to 1930, years during which he achieved his greatest successes.
A plaque from the Heritage Foundation was unveiled at his birthplace, Rutland Road in Bedford, on July 8, 2012. This coincided with the Olympic torch relay passing through the town.
Abrahams was immortalised in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, in which he was played by British actor Ben Cross. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. His memorial service serves as the framing device for the movie, which tells his story and that of Liddell.
Abrahams was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and into the England Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009.
In July 2012 plans were announced to erect a memorial to Abrahams in Telford, Shropshire to recognise that before the 1924 Olympics he won a gold medal in the 100 yard sprint at the Midlands Area AAA championships at St George's Recreation Ground.
Norris McWhirter once commented that Abrahams "managed by sheer force of personality and with very few allies to raise athletics from a minor to a major national sport". Reflecting in 1948 on Abrahams' athleticism, Philip Noel-Baker, Britain's 1912 Olympic captain and a Nobel Prize winner, wrote:
I have always believed that Harold Abrahams was the only European sprinter who could have run with Jesse Owens, Joe Candito, Ralph Metcalfe, and the other great sprinters from the U.S. He was in their class, not only because of natural gifts — his magnificent physique, his splendid racing temperament, his flair for the big occasion — but because he understood athletics and had given more brainpower and more will power to the subject than any other runner of his day.
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