Fred E. Bacon was a late-19th century British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 runner who won numerous running titles and briefly held the amateur world record for the mile

World record progression for the mile run

The world record in the mile run is the best mark set by a male or female runner in the middle-distance track and field event. The IAAF is the official body which oversees the records. Hicham El Guerrouj is the current men's record holder with his time of 3:43.13 minutes, while Svetlana Masterkova...

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Born in Boxted, Essex

Boxted, Essex

Boxted is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located approximately north of Colchester and northeast of the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the borough of Colchester and in the parliamentary constituency of North Essex. There is a Parish council...

, Bacon competed for Ashton-under-Lyne Harriers whilst stationed there as a soldier.http://www.eastcheshireharriers.co.uk/id17.html

Bacon won the AAA mile title three consecutive years from 1893 http://www.gbrathletics.com/bc/bc1.htm, his 1895 winning time a world amateur record of 4:17. The record was short-lived, eclipsed by American runner Thomas Conneff

Thomas Conneff

Thomas Conneff was an amateur American runner who held the amateur record for the fastest mile from 1895 to 1911.He was an Irish-born runner who emigrated to the United States in 1888 and generally specialized in longer distances, winning the national 10-mile championship four years in a row...

the following month.

He additionally won the AAA four-mile (6 km) title in 1894,http://www.gbrathletics.com/bc/bc1.htm the 10 miles (16.1 km) title in 1895 http://www.eastcheshireharriers.co.uk/id17.html and set a world record in the One-Hour run.

1891 first mention for Ashton-under-Lyne Harriers
1893 Northern Cross Country Champion
1894 running for Essex but usually
Ashton-under-Lyne Harriers
1894 AAA four mile (6 km) title 19.48.8
1893 World mile record holder time 4.22.2
1894 world mile record holder time 4.18.2
1895 world mile record holder time 4.17.0
1895 AAA ten miles (16 km) champion 52:43.8
Became professional
1896 Won ¾ mile race in 3.02.4 proving sub 4 min mile was possible
1896 invited to New York
1896 beat Conneff
1897 world 1 hour record Rochdale 11 miles 1234 yards 30,000 crowd (beat Deerfoot's 34 year record.

After his running career ended, Bacon went on to become the trainer for Manchester United Football club until 1912.

There is little information about what Bacon did after leaving Manchester United.