Born in Worcester, he won a gold medal in the team pursuit at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London for Great Britain and went on to play football, including two games as an amateur for Manchester United.

T W Badgery of the Worcester St Johns Cycling Club (speaking at a golden jubilee dinner in 1938) said that he borrowed his brother's bicycle "and it was seen at once that he was going to be a champion".

Payne was stocky, five feet six and a half inches (17 cm) tall and weighing ten stone and seven pounds (3.2 kg).

The Team pursuit took place over three laps of the 660-yard track at the White City Stadium in London's Shepherd's Bush.

Payne, 23, rode with Benjamin Jones, Clarence Kingsbury and Leonard Meredith in the British team.

In the final, Payne led the team to victory with pace-making over the last two laps of the 1,980 yards (1,810 m) event.

Payne played twice as an amateur for Manchester United in 1908–09,[5] when he is recorded as having signed from Worcester City.

[6] He made his debut against Nottingham Forest in a League Division One match on 27 February 1909, standing in when Billy Meredith was playing for Wales.

[5] The paper reported that it was a scrappy game in which each team's defence played a more important part than the forwards.