Diane Susan Leather Charles (7 January 1933 – 5 September 2018) was an English athlete who was the first woman to run a sub-5-minute mile.

[1] Inspired to take up running aged 19 after watching the 1952 Olympic Games, within months Leather had become national cross-country champion, a title she would go on to win four times.

By the time the 800m was introduced to the Olympics in 1960, Leather, by then known as Diane Charles through marriage, was no longer British number one, and was eliminated in the heats.

After retiring from running aged 27, Leather Charles moved to Cornwall, where she worked in social care, and lived there for the rest of her life.

This limit had been adopted after false media reports that six women collapsed at the finish line in an 800-metre race at the 1928 Olympics.

Leather led from start to finish, and won by a 76 second margin, making her national champion not long after turning 20, having only taken up the sport a few months before.

[13] Her club Birchfield Harriers won the team prize with ease, all four of their scoring runners finishing in the top twenty.

Leather maintained a lead over Great Britain "A" throughout her leg to bring her team home in a world record 6 minutes 49 seconds.

[18] Also in September 1953, shortly after fellow Briton Anne Oliver set a world's best for the mile of 5:08, Leather tackled the distance, for only the second time.

Taking the lead just before passing halfway in 2:37.8, Leather upped the pace to move well ahead of the field and gain the world best with 5:02.6, eight seconds clear of Enid Harding.

[21] The nature of the race, with the second half much quicker than the first, led the Athletics Weekly correspondent to write "it seems obvious that this girl could beat five minutes for the distance if she had any real opposition".

She retained her Midland title, took an emphatic victory in the English national championship at Aylesbury, and took first place in an England v Scotland international meeting at Perry Barr.

[5] Carrying her form into the track season, Leather made an attempt at the mile record at a Birchfield Harriers hosted meeting on 26 May 1954.

Three days later Leather competed in the Midlands Women's AAA Championships at Birmingham's Alexander Sports Ground.

In the 800 m, Leather battled for position with Loakes of Kettering until pulling clear with 200 m to go, and set a British all-comers record of 2:14.1.

Leather won the 800 m in both, despite border and transport delays meaning the team did not arrive in Ostrava until 1:30 a.m. on the day of competition.

[32] Another international match at White City billed as "London v Moscow" saw Leather go up against two of her foes from the European Championship final, Lysenko and Otkalenko, in the 880 yd (800 m).

[3] The 1956 Midland Cross-Country Championships saw Leather win a record equalling fourth consecutive title, though the race was closer than her previous victories, as Coventry Godiva's Roma Ashby was only five seconds back.

[40] She also took a fourth consecutive title in the following month's national championships at Sutton Coldfield, by a 50 yard margin from 1952 winner Phyllis Perkins.

[42] Leather won a fifth Midland Cross-Country title in 1957, pulling away from Roma Ashby in the final 400m to win by seven seconds.

[47] In August, at a Great Britain v USSR international match, Leather beat Yelizaveta Yermolayeva and Nina Otkalenko in the 800m, setting a new British record of 2:06.8.

[49] At the 1958 European Athletics Championships in Stockholm, Leather won her heat, coming through on the final straight to finish 0.2 seconds ahead of Dzidra Levitska of the Soviet Union in 2:09.8, making her the fastest qualifier.

Having previously trained exclusively with Birchfield Harriers, she joined London Olympiades AC, which had formed in 1921 as the first women-only Athletics club in the country.

[59] Her husband Peter later gave financial advice and assistance to Daley Thompson ahead of his first Olympic Games in 1980.

[3] She worked for child protection agencies, fostered children and was a volunteer for Cruse Bereavement Care and Samaritans.