AN historic Commonwealth Games medal won by a British athlete in 1938 is to go under the hammer at a Stourbridge auction this month.

Dora Kathleen Gardner won the British Empire (Commonwealth Games) silver medal in the high jump in the Games in Sydney at the age of 26.

Born in 1912 in Bookham, Surrey, track and field athlete Dora also competed in the European Championships in Vienna in 1938 and an International Sports meeting in Berlin in 1939 before winning the British high jump title in 1945.

She became captain of the British Woman Athletics Team in Oslo in 1946 - an honour that she carried through to the London Olympics in 1948.

Unfortunately, she had an ankle injury a month prior to the Olympics and could only finish eighth.

She passed away in 1994 and her medal collection is to be sold by Fieldings Auctioneers in Mill Race Lane, Stourbridge, on Friday August 26.

The collection includes a 1948 Olympic competitor’s medal, a photograph album of her career and other related ephemera.

Birmingham-born and bred auctioneer Nick Davies, director of Fieldings, said: “I can’t believe such a wonderful collection of items has just come through our door, to have a 1938 Empire Games medal consigned for sale just as my hometown is hosting the Commonwealth Games is so exciting, and with the women’s high jump this Saturday it is just too perfect.”