Bill Roycroft

Olympic medal record
Representing  Australia
Equestrian
Olympic Games
	1960 Rome	Team event
	1968 Mexico City	Team event
	1976 Montreal	Team event

James William "Bill" George Roycroft, OBE (17 March 1915 – 29 May 2011) was an Australian Olympic equestrian champion. He grew up on a dairy farm and learnt to ride horses there. After serving in the army in World War II, he moved with his family to a soldier's block in western Victoria near Camperdown, where he raised his three sons, all of whom went on to compete alongside their father in the Olympics. At his first Olympics, the 1960 Rome Games, he played a key role on the final day of the team three-day event, despite being thrown off his horse the day before, allowing Australia to win the gold medal in the competition. He went on to compete in four more Olympics from 1964 to 1976, winning bronze medals in team eventing at the 1968 Mexico City and 1976 Munich Games. He later served as coach of the Australian eventing team.

Roycroft was born as one of seven children on 17 March 1915 in Melbourne and grew up in Flowerdale. His parents ploughed with horses in their dairy farm. Roycroft rode throughout his childhood, and used to race his horses over tree branches with his friend Lawrence Morgan, later an Olympic equestrian competitor.

Around that time he left school and moved with his mother and father's brother to New South Wales, where he was a messenger for the Water Commission in Leeton and later a sharecropper. He then moved back to Flowerdale, where he did odd jobs on local farms while competing in riding.

While in Flowerdale he met Mavis Jones, a show jumper. He signed up as a soldier when World War II broke out, and married Mavis during his first substantial leave from duty. After the war, they moved with their son Barry (born 1944) to a 200-hectare (500-acre) soldier's block near Camperdown in western Victoria, where they set up a dairy farm.The couple had two further sons, Wayne (born 1946) and Clarke (born 1950). Roycroft trained them in riding from an early age while Mavis would select the horses. They also went on to compete in Olympic equestrian events alongside their father – Barry in 1964, 1976, and 1988; Wayne in 1968, 1976, and 1984 ; and Clarke in 1972. Wayne's wife, Vicki, also competed in equestrian at the Olympics. Mavis died on 17 August 2007 at the age of 86.

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