John Mayhew-Sanders, who died on 1 November 2013 aged 82, was elected Captain of the Club in the centenary year 1956. Whilst serving in the Royal Navy he completed an engineering degree at Jesus College, Cambridge, and rowed in the college’s winning Ladies’ Plate crew in 1953 at 5. He then followed the well-trodden path to London, which had started in the 1930s under Steve Fairbairn’s influence. The Club’s Centenary Dinner on 11 October 1956 was held at the Grocers’ Hall during John’s term of office and it fell to him to respond to the Toast to the Club delivered by Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, the former Prime Minister of Australia.
John was in his mid-20s by the time he was elected captain, and had embarked upon articles with his father’s accountancy practice in Oxford Street, so he did not row at Henley in 1957. He rejoined the Club in 2001 after being sought out and invited to a Captains’ dinner in November that year, but in the event was unable to attend.
John pursued a leading career in management consultancy and industry, was active in promoting Anglo-Soviet trade, and was appointed a member of the Government’s British Overseas Trade Board. He was knighted for services to exports in 1982.
