CHAIRMAN’S VIEW

Over the past month the club has been very busy with a large squad of men and women boating and training. There is an enthusiastic and positive feel which is energising and reassuring considering the twin challenges that we face with Hammersmith Bridge remaining closed and the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. Please consider whether you are able to give time to support the rowing activities; there is still space for more coaches and training will be available.

Your new committee met for the first time on Wednesday 23rd September. We have a full programme of work to address with some excellent work being delivered by the subcommittees.

Repair work to the roof over the Long Room started on Monday 5th October and will last for just over a month. There may be some inconvenience to members during this period; please bear with us whilst we complete these necessary works.

Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all aspects of our lives and the restrictions are going to continue for a while yet. With our events business severely restricted we are working hard to limit the financial impact. At LRC we have a great club and a remarkable facility. Several members have already been able to use the facilities for business meetings – we can offer plenty of space to get together whilst still observing social distancing. Please consider whether you or your business are able to make use of the facilities.

Simon Harris
Chairman, London Rowing Club

CAPTAIN’S REPORT

The club continues to wrestle with the ongoing challenges of Covid and the closure of Hammersmith Bridge, yet the resilience of the membership continues to shine through with membership numbers reaching record levels and club activity pushing on within this new set of confines. It is most heartening to see so many of our members across the length and breadth of the club taking to the water.

I should however take this opportunity to remind all using the club and heading out onto the water to familiarise themselves with the latest safety protocols (both general and Covid related) as it is now more important than ever that we abide by these without exception.

The senior squad continues on a very positive trajectory with a very healthy competitive atmosphere developing and positive energy in abundance. Numbers currently exceed 6 eights worth, including in excess of 16 female athletes, and this continues to grow on a weekly basis. It does however mean that presently we don’t have enough racing quality boats to cater for all these athletes - a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.

Full Squad armada on a sightseeing trip to Westminster.

Early morning training on a hot lap past LRC.

Ladies 8+ spinning at Westminster in the gentle rain on Sunday 4 October.

Stu, our Chief Coach, has continued to build a solid coaching team. I am particularly grateful to the newest member, German Pradera, who is very ably assisting Stu in the delivery of a robust and technically sound program. German brings a technical eye to the team, continuing to build a solid rapport with the squad and he is a constant at almost every session. Also worth noting is that the evergreen Richard Philips is now embarking on his 31st season coaching the LRC squad and suffice to say his knowledge and contributions are invaluable. Rounding out the team of volunteer coaches are Vice-President Ben Helm, Vice-Captain James Sexton-Barrow (JSB) and Andrew Douglas, all of whom are adding significant value in making the boat go faster.

All of this combined has our athletes at a level where they are champing at the bit to race and show off their speed. We can only hope that we will find opportunities to race and the more pressure we can exert to reopen Hammersmith Bridge will only help in achieving our ambitions as a squad and as a club.

Bang the Drum!

Mark Lucani
Captain, London Rowing Club

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

See more detail for these events, visit our Calendar of Events…

IRREGULARS’ REPORT

As we all know the weather has been against us and the continuing uncertainty re Covid is affecting numbers a bit on the rowing front. Average turnouts are a dozen or so every Wednesday and Sunday morning. However, there are quite a few of our number ‘in training’ for the fours Head and combining with others from the Saturday morning Alan Foster group. This is great and let us hope that the race takes place.

On another front, there has lately been a call from the NHS for volunteers - PPE Packing is starting up again and there is a call for drivers to transport District Nurses as well as Telephone support. If anybody is interested then please contact me here and I can send you a link.

Speaking personally, the big event this last month was our first dinner since the onset of Covid - 36 attendees and ‘somebody’ had discovered it was my birthday a few weeks previously. I just could not believe it when I was presented with a named Pair of Sculls by two very sprightly gentlemen, Iain Laurenson and John Pearson, but of course given to me by the Irregulars and a few well known ‘others’. Suffice to say I wanted to hug everybody but of course I couldn't. Thank you so much.

Eddie Markes

ROWING ON THE THAMES IN THE 50s & 60s

PART 6: THE GRAND EIGHT

This is the last article in the series, and if you have read so far you will realise that this is a social history and not a record of Club wins or names from long ago. The idea was to show what rowing at Putney was like, both on and off the river, so that readers could either be reminded of those days or compare them with today.

Clearly there were no wins in the Grand, although the Eight did compete in Trials for the European Championships in 1965 but in the end no eight was sent.

The Grand Eight training at Henley in 1964.

The Grand Eights pre-Henley racing was limited as there were not many suitable events but this changed after Henley when the Club took part in many and varied regattas. A popular one was St Neots because they gave quart tankards as trophies, one year the Eight had to beat University of London to get the tankard. Others were Hereford, Ross and on one occasion a four from the Eight went to Cirencester Agricultural College Regatta held on a canal.

The Grand Eight winning at Hereford in 1967.

There were other out of season activities including the Kings Road Run starting at a pub near Sloane Square and finishing in Fulham, if you could get that far. Peter Coni, later to become Chairman of HRR, was then in the Grand Eight. One Sunday afternoon he phoned round the Eight and suggested a pub crawl to Greenwich in Casamajor, then the Eight’s coaching launch. By teatime a group assembled at Putney. The first stop was by Tower Bridge, Casamajor was tied up to a barge. As we clambered out we were picked up by a Police launch searchlight and had to reassure them that we were from LRC. Then onto Curlew RC’s pontoon at Greenwich and we took the patrons of The Yacht totally by surprise as came up over the river wall. Then suitably refreshed at around 10.00 pm we set off back. We reached Hungerford Bridge, and after some debate we took the inner arch. There was a grinding sound and it was clear that all apart from the driver would have to abandon ship. This spectacle proved of great interest to the spectators on the bridge, and after a little pushing and shoving we were on our way home.

I am very conscious that there has been no mention of women’s rowing in my articles. The Club was then only for men and even visiting ladies were not allowed in the main bar, which in those days would have been described as a Public Bar. Instead they were entertained in a comfortable annexe next door.

Hugh Dulley

LONDON ROWING CLUB’S WORLD WAR II FALLEN

The public events held this year to mark the 75th anniversaries of VE and VJ Days (and the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 1940 last month) were somewhat muted due to the current coronavirus pandemic. Now that these events are over, this may be an opportunity to give members such information as we hold about the Club members who fell in World War II, and to remind ourselves of the sacrifices that they made when we have enjoyed over seven decades of peace since.

This article will provide a summary of those members who fell in World War II, and then follow on, in the next issues of London Roar, with individual listings of the fallen in alphabetical order, the information coming almost entirely from the records on line held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

In the lobby at the clubhouse at the top of the main stairs and going into the Fairbairn Room, there is a Roll of Honour board listing those who fell in both World War I and World War II. There are 31 names for World War II. Unlike for World War I, however, information in the Club other than their names is somewhat sparse. There is no Memorial Book, no bronze memorial tablet, no calligrapher’s list of names, and the annual report for 1946 is notable for its brevity. This may well reflect the difficult conditions confronted by the Club after it had been closed throughout the six years 1939 to 1945; moreover, Club treasures had been lost to enemy action, and finances were difficult.

What we do know is the following. The 31 named on the board served in theatres of war spread all over the world. We are certain from CWGC records about 27 of the 31. 11 served in the Army, 10 in the Royal Air Force and 6 in the Royal Navy. 5 were Australians, one came from Canada and one from New Zealand. They are interred in graves, or listed on memorials, located in France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Holland, Belgium and the UK in Europe; Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Kenya in Africa; and elsewhere in India, Burma (3), Indonesia (2), Thailand, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong. Those in the Royal Navy who died at sea have their names recorded on naval memorials in Portsmouth (2), Plymouth and Lee on Solent, with one name at Woking Crematorium. Ranks ranged in the Army from Major (2), Captain (5) to Lieutenant (4); all 6 in the Royal Navy were Lieutenants (or Surgeon Lieutenants); and ranks in the RAF ranged amongst Lieutenant (4), Flying Officer (4), and Pilot Officer (2). Not all ages are known but, where they are stated, they extend from 55 to 21.

What of the other 4 who fell? They either do not appear in the CWGC records (3) or we cannot be certain that we have the right man. It is just possible that one member’s death has been recorded by the Club erroneously, but this needs checking.

We can be proud of the gallantry awards to those who fell. They are illustrated below.

We will try and find out, pandemic permitting, whether any recommendations (or citations) are available, for inclusion in the later articles. These will be at The National Archives in Kew.

We do not know how many members, who served, survived World War II. The annual report is silent on that figure (unlike the report for 1919 which recorded about 100 in WWI). There were three winners of the Military Cross in the Grand VIII at Henley in 1946 (the Captain T B Langton at 6; the Australian Vice Captain W T Robertson at 2; and John (J H) Pinches, whom older members will remember, at stroke). The Hon House Steward for several years in the 1940s, W P Trotter, also won the MC. Jumbo Edwards had a distinguished War in the RAF, winning the DFC, the AFC and being three times Mentioned in Despatches. But he lost two brothers, E C T Edwards (Oxford blue) in 1940 over Holland and – one of the 31 – J O V Edwards in 1942 in Burma.

Julian Ebsworth
LRC Librarian & Archivist

LETTER FROM HOLLAND

Well, the virus is the same and the restrictions comparable, the frustration as well. And we are all getting older, but like the Irregulars nothing will stop us.

This afternoon I went out in an eight of which I am part since the beginning of the nineties. In the pouring rain and pretty chilly temperatures.

Rowing practice at a party at AASR Skoll (BEFORE COVID!).

Our stroke: an ex Airline executive dealing with skin cancer; no. 7: ex Tata steel board member fighting cancer; myself on 6 with just a hip replacement; no. 5: also a Tata steel ex-executive, old but in pretty good health according to himself; no. 4: an ex USA IT CEO, terribly obese and with lousy knees; no. 3: a great ocean sailor with acute rheumatoid muscle problems; no. 2: a nice competent engineer with heart rhythm issues and finally our bow: also an ex Airline executive recovered from a cancer treatment. Soaking wet but happy we returned from our Saturday outing, just very p.... off because the bar was closed by the government.

Now the youth. The student rowing club that I co-founded in the sixties is very hard hit. All the restrictions made at first rowing impossible and later just most of the social functions. The club has now over a thousand members with several Olympic rowers who are obviously extremely disappointed. As the club relies on an annual influx of hundreds of new students, I was quite worried about all the restrictions since March. However, possibly because of the desire to have at least some social structure and the need to belong, the influx has been more than could be absorbed. And that without most of the rowing and social activities that made the club big. I admire their positive approach and all the efforts they make to adhere to rules and still make rowing possible.

Me with two members of the Club's Committee (ALSO BEFORE COVID!).

We are living in amazing times and it is interesting to see how the oldies never give up and the younger ones keep believing in the future.

I do hope to be able to come back to LRC soon!

Hans Van Der Velde

ROWING FOR LRC FROM 1962-67

PART 1: A REMINISCENCE, 1962-63

When I heard that Simon Rippon had died, it reminded me that already half of our 1960’s coxless four of Rippon, Royle ‘ampton and Mr. Smith had gone. So I decided to write a history of my time in the club from 1962–1967 of which this is an extract.

I had come to LRC from the Lady Margaret Second Lent VIII, welcomed by the Captain, Peter Coni. Even in our first year as the Thames Cup VIII we won some pots, but our greatest race was at Henley where, as the underdogs, we rowed right past Thames in the most incredible show of togetherness I have never since experienced. We then lost to Queen’s College Cambridge, but I was never beaten by a Club crew at Henley. And as this made us the best club crew at Henley, we were invited to represent England as an eight at the Home Countries International in Hyde Park on the Serpentine, which we subsequently won. All this occurred after nine months of somewhat hard training. I say “somewhat hard” because we didn’t know any better, nor did we have the facilities. We had the Tank, the towpath to Hammersmith and boating, more or less training six days a week.

But there had been something different about the 1962/63 winter, it was the year of the big freeze! During the early part of 1963, rowing on tidal water was the only outdoor sport possible, so we had television crews homing in on the icicles on our riggers. But how we enjoyed it! Not only that, when we got back there was a hot shower (if you could stand the smell of towels cooking in the dryer), the bar and then supper, before retiring directly to bed if, like me, you had chosen to live in one of the club rooms upstairs.

LRC Steward’s Four finishing 3rd Fours Head.

So, what was the club like in those days?

Well, first the entrance to the bar was at the North End up the outside stairs. The bar always seemed to be open, but one Saturday night we had returned from a regatta around midnight and stowed the boats. When we finally got upstairs Peter Hilditch had the bar open and there were a small number of patrons. It occurred to me as I sipped my beer, weren’t we supposed to follow closing hours of 11:00 PM? So, I asked Peter if we would get in trouble if the beat policeman saw us open. “Not if you provide me with a drink”, said a voice from the dark end of the bar. Of course, it was the beat policeman! Which brings me to drinking, something always does! Our coach limited us to 2 ½ pints of beer a night, but since we were very thirsty, we needed a way around this. What was the strongest beer sold? Guinness. What if we had 5 Guinness shandys? Well, the bar wasn’t very happy because it is difficult to pour a pint of Guinness shandy, especially if you pour the beer first, so we settled for a pint glass half-filled with lemonade and half a pint of Guinness and mixed it ourselves.

Colin Smith
LMBC & LRC

Part 2: ‘1963-64’ will be published in the November edition of the London Roar

LRC LADIES SILK SCARF

Orders are now being accepting for this new item. Those who have ordered already needn't repeat.

Many thanks to those who blindly committed in advance, as well as those who paid in advance, to allow this item to be created and added to LRC Kit with no financial burden to the Club.

100% Silk, medium twill, hand rolled, 34" square in LRC formal kit colours.
Price will be between £40 and £45.

For this one item, for this one time, please order through kathleen.curran1@btinternet.com.

A ways down the road, this item will be available through shop@londonrc.org.uk.

Kathleen Curran

REPORTING SAFETY INCIDENTS

All members are reminded that if you are involved in or witness a water safety incident, you are required to report it on safety@londonrc.org.uk

The Club will file any necessary reports on your behalf with British Rowing and the PLA. Members should not submit reports directly to either body.

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

My thanks to everyone who has contributed to this edition of the London Roar. If you have an idea for an article or would be interested in submitting a piece for inclusion in a future edition, please email me on miles.preston@londonrc.org.uk

Please do not submit an article without first liaising with me.

Miles Preston
Editor of The London Roar