Jack Lovelock

Later life Lovelock was a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II. He married Cynthia James in 1945 and had two daughters. A year later, he began working at Manhattan Hospital in New York City. On 28 December 1949, he had telephoned his wife from work to inform her that he was coming home early because he was not feeling well. He was waiting at the Church Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, New York, when he fell onto the tracks, probably as a result of one of the dizziness attacks to which he was subject after being thrown from a horse in 1940. He was then killed by an oncoming train.

Posthumous commemorations In 1990 the New Zealand post office issued a set of stamps featuring Lovelock along with George Nēpia.

For the 1972 Munich Olympics, Lovelock's legacy stemming from the 1936 Berlin Olympics was immortalised in the naming of the Lovelockweg walkway at the Olympiapark. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage refers to a "Lovelock legend", and describes him as having "captured the imagination of New Zealanders and others. Streets, playing fields and sports bars have been named after him. He has inspired books, stamps, a stage play and a film. In 2002 a statue was erected at Timaru Boys High, where much of the memorabilia related to him is stored."

His Victory Oak from the 1936 Olympics was planted at Timaru Boys' High School in New Zealand, and is considered a nationally protected landmark.

Lovelock Place, in the Hamilton suburb of Chartwell, is named in Lovelock's honour.

In Dunedin there is Lovelock Avenue and Lovelock Bush. In January 2010 the Otago Daily Times wrote:

In 2018, the Lovelock archival papers, featuring material related to his life and sports science held at the Alexander Turnbull Library, were added to the Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao register.