Known to many in his native country of the Bahamas by his nickname of "Sea Wolf", Knowles - who died aged 100 - was a veteran of eight Olympic Games.

He won an Olympic bronze medal in the star class sailing at Melbourne 1956 and, in partnership with the late Cecil Cooke, added a gold medal at Tokyo 1964. 

Knowles had assumed his signal honour following the death in May 2016, at the age of 102, of Hungarian water polo player Sándor Tarics, winner of an Olympic gold medal at Berlin 1936. 

In 1949, Tarics had left Soviet-occupied Hungary for a new life in United States, where his engineering degree from the Budapest University of Technology earned him a teaching fellowship.

He subsequently earned fame in his adopted country as a designer of earthquake-proof building technologies.

At the age of more than 100 he still drove a car with the California licence plate "Gold36" .

Sir Durward was also a remarkable man.

Shortly before he died of kidney failure in hospital, surrounded by family members, Knowles wrote in his third and final book Never Give Up: "As I write this book, I am almost 100 and right now I am in a good place. My body is not bad for a centurion and my mind is sound.

"I can honestly say, I have lived a full life and if my eyes closed tomorrow, I would feel I left the world a better place than I found it. Never give up!"

During his tribute, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis extended condolences on behalf of a "grateful nation" to a man who "loved our Bahamas with joy and exuberance".

Dr Minnis added: "Sir Durward Knowles was a world-class athlete and Olympian. He was an accomplished businessman, a man of excellence who exhibited discipline in every field of endeavour.

"He loved his family and his country with tremendous passion and devotion.

"As I noted on several occasions, Sir Durward demonstrated the nobility and largeness of spirit to confront certain historic wrongs in our country, which some others chose to silently ignore at best.

"His involvement with the disability community demonstrated a core value of Sir Durward.

"This value is the dignity of all of God's people, regardless of any circumstance of birth or life."

After Sir Durward's death, the distinction of being the oldest living Olympic champion passed to Finland's Lydia Wideman, the Winter Olympic 10 kilometres cross-country gold medallist at Oslo 1952.

Wideman died on April 13 last year, aged 98, and thus the mantle passed to Hungary's Ágnes Keleti, who is now 99 having been born on January 9, 1921.

Keleti, born Agnes Klein, won 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics at the Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956, including five golds.

Her position is all the more remarkable for the fact that what would have been her first and second Olympic opportunities, in 1940 and 1944, never took place because of the Second World War.

And. more profoundly, for the fact that, save for her bravery, resourcefulness and luck, she might have suffered the same fate as her father and several other relatives in being killed by the Nazis.

Keleti had taken up gymnastics at the age of four, and at 16 she had won her first national title - she would go on to add nine more. As such she looked a sure bet to be in the Hungarian team for the 1940 Olympics that were due to be held in Tokyo.

But once the war began. with Hungary fighting alongside Germany and Italy as part of the Axis powers, Keleti was expelled from her gymnastics club for being Jewish.

As conditions grew even more dangerous for her, she survived thanks in part to assuming a false identity and working as a maid.

Her mother and sister went into hiding, and were saved by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. But her father and uncles were among the 550,000 Hungarian Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, perishing at Auschwitz.

In the winter of 1944-1945, during the Siege of Budapest by Soviet forces. Keleti would in the mornings collect bodies of those who had died and place them in a mass grave.

After the war Kelesi, a talented musician, played the cello professionally and resumed her gymnastics career. She qualified for the 1948 Olympics, in London but missed the competition after tearing a ligament in her ankle.

Thus she had to wait until 1952, in Helsinki, to start her Olympic career - at the age of 31.

She earned four medals, including gold in the floor exercise, and the following year she won a world title on uneven bars.

Four years later in Melbourne she became the oldest female gymnast to win gold as she earned victory in three of the four individual event finals - floor, bar and balance beam - bringing her Olympic medal collection to 10.

While the Olympics were going on Hungary was invaded by the Soviet Union, and Keleti, along with 44 other athletes from her country, sought to remain in Australia and apply for political asylum.

Keleti emigrated to Israel in 1957, and was able to be joined there by her mother and sister. She married and had two sons, becoming a PE instructor at Tel Aviv University, as well as coaching the Israeli national team.

On January 9 this year, on her 99th birthday, she was interviewed at home by Pablo Gorondi for the Associated Press:

"Keleti, whose infectious laugh seems always ready to spring into action, has a favorite prank for those expecting to meet a frail, weak lady entering her 100th year," he wrote.

"She extends her hand in greeting, makes sure her grip is good and tight, and suddenly yanks the unsuspecting ‘victim’ toward her with surprising force.

"’I’m strong,’ she says with a big chuckle after the pull. ‘And silly!’”

Asked by Gorondi to talk about the past, she responded: "The past? Let’s talk about the future. That’s what should be beautiful. The past is past but there is still a future."