Mike Baldwin, President
Mike started rowing in 1960 at City of London School and joined the Club in 1962. He rowed for LRC in 1968 and 1971, work commitments prohibiting further participation. He joined the Committee in 1971 and has been involved with Club management ever since. He was Captain of the Club in 1976/77, and he was a Vice-President for 15 years before being elected President. He continues to row and compete in head races.
Mike undertook various jobs on the Committee, principally looking after the Club’s insurances. He has arranged sponsorship by his company, Sutton Winson. Mike was part of the Gym Fundraising group and was instrumental in the initiative to raise funds to make up for the decline in events income during the pandemic.
Mike has had a number of other roles in the rowing world. He obtained his Umpire’s Licence in 1977, and his FISA Licence in 1982. He umpired at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, and was Chairman of the Organising Committee of the World Rowing Championships in 2006. He was Chairman of the Head of the River Committee for a number of years. He was elected a Henley Steward in 1995.
BEN HELM, VICE-PRESIDENT
Ben started rowing at George Heriot’s School in 1978 and has rowed or sculled since. He was awarded a Blue at Edinburgh University in 1985 and joined LRC in 1991. He rowed in various lightweight Great Britain crews from 1993 to 1996 including in the four at the Atlanta games. He won a silver medal in the eight at the World Championships in 1995, was in the LRC four that gained the world’s best time for Open and Lightweight fours in Paris in 1994 with a time of 05.48.86. This four raced at Henley Royal that year in the Stewards and Queen Mother Cups reaching the final in both events losing to the reigning Open World Champions.
Ben was Captain of the Club for the 1998-99 season and subsequently served on the Committee, initially managing the HPP relationship with GB Rowing, and as Chairman from 2012 to 2016. Since then, he has been a Vice-President. He focused on raising funds for the gym build and has recently acted as the Club’s Safety Adviser.
Ben obtained his Umpire Licence in 2006, and his FISA licence in 2011. He has chaired many Regatta and Head race committees and is presently Chairman of the Head of the River Race. He was elected a Henley Steward in 2016.
SOPHIE HOSKING, VICE-PRESIDENT
At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Sophie Hosking raced in the lightweight women’s double sculls with Kat Copeland. The duo won their final by over 2 seconds ahead of China, to become Olympic gold medallists. Sophie was subsequently awarded an MBE in the 2013 New Year Honours list.
During the 2012 World Cup Series, Sophie won a silver medal. At the 2011 World Rowing Championships Sophie won a bronze medal just a fraction behind the double from Canada. In Munich at the first World Cup of 2011 Sophie and her crewmate won gold.
Sophie attended Kingston Grammar School in London, before completing an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Physics at Durham University. Following her retirement from competitive rowing, she embarked on a legal career.
Sophie was the first female Captain of the Club, serving for two years from 2013. She followed a family precedent as a member of the Club and as a rowing champion. Her father is David Hosking, now an Honorary Member. He won a gold medal at the 1980 World Championships in the lightweight eight.
Richard Philips, VICE-PRESIDENT
Richard joined LRC 1973 and raced for the Club in every season from 1975 to 1990. At HRR he rowed in the Thames, Wyfolds, Britannia, Diamonds, Doubles and the Queen Mother Cups. Richard has raced on every day of the Henley Royal Regatta. He has bronze, silver and gold medals at National Championships. He was Club captain for three consecutive years from 1987 to 1989, and has coached at LRC since 1991. Richard was also the coach for the GB U23 Lwt 2x during 1992.
A structural engineer by trade, Richard is also a multi-lane umpire, and sits on the organising committee of the Fours Head, Marlow Regatta and the TRRC sports committee.
MIKE WILLIAMS, VICE-PRESIDENT
Mike Williams joined the club in 1974 and served as Vice-Captain, Captain (1976-7 and 1977-8), Treasurer for 10 years in the eighties, Vice President 1993-2005 and President (2005-15) before resuming as a Vice-President. He was a committee member continuously between 1976 and 2020.
Mike learned to cox at Oundle School in the sixties, and continued to cox at Cambridge for Trinity Hall, Goldie (1972) and the Blue Boat (1973). He has coached many crews in the distant past, at Oundle, Kings College, Auckland, New Zealand, Trinity Hall and LRC. He has been a member of the Henley Royal, Metropolitan Amateur and Henley Town & Visitors regatta committees for many years.
He held a British umpiring licence from 1979 and an international licence from 1997. He has been President of the Jury at numerous international events. He umpired at Henley from 1999 retiring as the senior umpire in 2015. In 1989 he was elected treasurer of British Rowing (then known as The Amateur Rowing Association). After ten years as Treasurer, he stepped down from Executive Officer duties and became Chairman of the Finance Committee, finally stepping down from the British Rowing Board after 25 years’ service in 2014.
In 1993 Mike was elected treasurer of FISA, the International Rowing Federation, and served in this position as a member of both the Executive Committee and the Council of FISA for 25 years, stepping down at the end of 2018. Mike lives in Remenham where he flies the LRC flag on his garden flagpole during HRR. Other than rowing, his interests include classic cars and golf.
In the 2023 New Year's Honours List, Mike was awarded an OBE for services to rowing. This honour followed previous recognition for Distinguished Service to International Rowing awarded by World Rowing in 2019.
