CHAIRMAN’S VIEW

Happy New Year! As I write we have just entered a further lockdown; sadly this feels vaguely familiar. With the vaccine now being rolled out and the lockdown starting to have an effect in reducing the number of cases, I am hopeful that 2021 will see us able to return to rowing, open the gym and go racing.

As well as curtailing rowing, the coronavirus restrictions have had a dramatic effect on our commercial activities. This was described in the letter to all members from Mike, our President, last month and in an update below. The response from the membership has been very positive and humbling. To date we are nearly two thirds of the way to reaching our target of £15,000 per month for eight months and I would like to thank everyone who has contributed. If you have not yet been able to commit to supporting the Club through this period, please do what you can; every contribution will help.

Through the various upheavals your committee has continued to work to move the club forward. Of particular note over the past weeks has been the work to repair the roof overseen by Peter and Eddie. This has been completed to a high standard through some wet and some very cold weather. We will present details of this work, ongoing developments and future plans at our meeting on Wednesday 10th February. I urge you to join us online if possible.

Simon Harris
Chairman, London Rowing Club

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

We have been most heartened by the response to my letter regarding the Club’s very severe cash-flow deficit projections over the next few months. So far, your donations have taken us to nearly two thirds of the way in filling the anticipated financial hole that the Covid restrictions have created, which is a great relief to the Committee.

However, this still means that our situation remains very worrying, with no sign at all of our being able to start building our income from our social event activities. Some of our members have been very generous in their donations, but every donation is an act of generosity which is so much appreciated. Our donors so far comprise about 10% of our total membership, with offers coming from every category of member, but to put it bluntly, we will need help from the remaining 90%. No donation is too small, and every donation makes a difference, so if you haven’t contributed so far, please give thought to what you can chip in.

Here is a link to the donation form

On a personal note, I have been delighted that the appeal has connected me with a lot of my old contemporaries, and I have been greatly encouraged by the warmth of feeling expressed towards the Club, and to its future.

Mike Baldwin
President, London Rowing Club

NOTICE OF CLUB MEETINGS

There will be a Club Meeting via Zoom at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday 10th February. At the meeting the Club's finance team will update members on the financial position of the Club in the context of the COVID-19 and the very generous donations that many members are making in response to our President Mike Baldwin's letter to members of 11th December. The meeting will also be an opportunity for members of the General Committee to describe some of the projects they are coordinating that will develop the activities and facilities of the Club.

There will be a General Meeting of London Rowing Club Limited at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday 14th April in the Clubhouse or via Zoom depending on the prevailing circumstances. At the meeting the finance team will review the company's accounts for the 18 months period ended on 31st July 2020 and will provide a further update on the financial position of the Club. The accounts will be circulated to members in advance.

The AGM of the Club has been scheduled to take place at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday 7th July. Further details will be provided in due course.

Andrew Boyle
Honorary Secretary, London Rowing Club

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

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

CAPTAIN’S REPORT

As I sit to write this report the scenario is feeling all too familiar, following a great build of momentum we find ourselves back up in a national lockdown and once again unable to visit the club in person. I share in everyone’s frustrations in having to, once again, shelve our lofty plans and again wait patiently for a return to normality.

In my last report I wrote in anticipation of the second instalment of the Embankment Challenge to be held on the 19th of December. Unfortunately, a much-anticipated opportunity to take on our old foes was scuppered by a COVID enforced shut-down of TRC. Nonetheless we still managed a hit out with our men taking on Vesta’s men’s squad in a time trial and our ladies taking on the Vesta Women in side-by-side pieces: our top ladies eight manged to stay comfortably ahead the Vesta top boat in the first of the pieces while our ladies’ quad was only a short way off the Vesta second eight.

*Catriona Scott, Jenny Arthur, Rowena Price and Harriet Lowe (bow).*

In the time trial, London boated 5 men’s eights (including a Millennials crew) and managed to put 3 crews ahead the top Vesta Men’s eight. It is also worth mentioning that our top 3 crews ended up within 7 seconds of each other- some interesting head scratchers for Stu when we do return to racing.

*LRC 1: Heather Scott (cox), Gregor Maxwell, Matt “Ricky” Curtis, Graham Ord, Andrew Wakefield, Adam von Bismarck, Oswald Stocker, Rob Williams and Matt Reeder (photo credit: Mark Ruscoe).*

Unfortunately following these fixtures our crew boats were returned to their racks and have not seen any action since.

Over the festive period, under the Tier 4 restrictions, I was lucky enough to take out a single or double a handful of times enjoying some idyllic conditions and a rare opportunity to a spend some time in a boat again.

Unfortunately, with the lockdown now in full force even these excursions are curtailed for now. But things are different this time- the new year brings new hope with an end in sight where we all hope to see the back of this dreaded virus! In the meantime, we ready ourselves to spring back in action as soon as the restrictions are lifted, hoping to pick up where, or even ahead of where we left off.

As in the past we continue to look for ways to engage with the membership while locked down. Thursday circuits will continue via zoom, we are rolling out Monday night zoom ergs and I am sure there will be plenty more on the social side.

With any luck we will emerge stronger and faster, even more appreciative of time on the water and at the club. Till then I wish you a safe and healthy New Year and hope to see many of you on the Zoom sessions.

BANG THE DRUM!

Mark Lucani
Captain, London Rowing Club

IRREGULARS’ REPORT

Firstly, a Happy NEW YEAR to everyone.

The only rowing news I have to impart is that Jason Danciger and Dugald Moore (together but not together) took part in the Concept2 Holiday Challenge in aid of Charity. They each completed 200,000 metres between November 26th and December 24th - an average of just over 7,000m per day - sterling effort for an Irregular Guys!!

Others of us have seemingly been broken by the absence of water running away beneath them and have resorted to wandering about their abodes waiting for the call that the club has reopened!

Eddie Markes

150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE OPENING OF THE CLUBHOUSE

The original clubhouse, with grandstand above and boathouse below, shortly after it was opened in 1871. The entrance was at the upstream end, up the steps which are still in use. Note the decorative balcony. The fencing at the front survived until t… — The original clubhouse, with grandstand above and boathouse below, shortly after it was opened in 1871. The entrance was at the upstream end, up the steps which are still in use. Note the decorative balcony. The fencing at the front survived until the 1960s and the cast iron posts for them to slot into still exist. The Embankment was not upgraded to a tarmac road until 1888.

The London Rowing Club’s clubhouse opened its doors 150 years ago, in January 1871. The building on Putney Embankment is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, purpose-built boathouses in the country, if not the world. The club itself was founded in 1856 and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2006.

A Sub Committee has been beavering away in the background since the end of 2019 to plan the marking of the clubhouse’s anniversary in an appropriate way. Research continues - the coronavirus pandemic has hardly helped here - so nothing has been decided yet, and a recommendation has still to be made to the relevant senior Committee, but it is possible, for example, that a modest celebratory booklet will be produced later in the year.

When the Club was founded in the first half of 1856 it drew its membership from a miscellany of small clubs, mainly based it seems around the Wandsworth area and further downstream as far as Westminster. These clubs probably operated mainly out of boatbuilder’s premises, but this is not certain. They included the Argonaut Club, whose colours London used in order to compete at its first Henley. Argonaut’s colours may have been blue and white.

The early years of the Club are recorded succinctly in Chris Dodd’s history (published in 2006 – ‘Water Boiling Aft’), Chapter 12, but, in brief, the Club rented its first rooms for clubhouse use in a new top floor of premises belonging and next door to the old Star & Garter. To go afloat, members walked a few hundred yards up the wide towpath (which is all that the Embankment was at the time) to where boats were stored. The Club initially rented space for its boats at Searle’s yard and then built in 1858 a shed on Finches Field, which was on the site of the present clubhouse.

By 1868 members, who had increased rapidly in number in the Club’s first decade, were pressing the Committee to move out of the Star & Garter into larger premises and architects were invited to submit plans for approval. One of these architects was George A. Dunnage, bow in the successful 1859 Grand VIII, whose drawings were approved. A contract was entered into with a local building firm, T H Adamson & Sons, of Putney High Street, and construction began in 1870, costing in all £1,900. The building was complete by the end of the year. A distinctive feature was a grandstand in the roof, which exists to this day and extends along the length of the Long Room.

In 1869 a limited liability company was formed to provide the legal backing and enable the financing for building the clubhouse – London Boat House Company Limited. This was registered with the Board of Trade in January 1870 with the company number 4711. Members of a legal stripe will be aware that this number is still in use, despite a recent adjustment in the last few years to the company name, and is one of the longest surviving company numbers in England and Wales.

The full story of the clubhouse’s 150 years will be set out in the proposed booklet, but extensions were built in 1875, 1884, 1891, 1921, 1969-72, 2004-6 and the very recent Peter Coni gym. The freehold was bought from the Westbury family in 1913-14 for £3,000. There is quite a story to build on what Chris Dodd wrote.

Julian Ebsworth
LRC Librarian & Archivist

‘WATER BOILING AFT’

With us all currently unable to use our club’s facilities and with potentially a little more time on our hands, now is the perfect opportunity to get to know our collective history a little better.

Water Boiling Aft is the story of the first 150 years (1856 - 2006) of The London Rowing Club as much as it is a history of rowing in the UK, given the central role LRC has held in the sport for so many years.

Written by perhaps the best known author of rowing books there is, as well as a founder of the River and Rowing Museum, Christopher Dodd, Water Boiling Aft is available to members for £20 plus a small postage and packaging fee.

If you’re not quite sure how our rivalry with Thames first started, why syncopated rowing never took off (or even what it is), or perhaps your New Years resolution was just read a little more, Water Boiling Aft is the perfect lockdown read.

Anyone interested in purchasing a copy, please email james.sextonbarrow@londonrc.org.uk to arrange payment and postage.

James Sexton-Barrow
Vice Captain, London Rowing Club

LONDON ROWING CLUB’S WWII FALLEN

PART 4

Continuing the series of articles which began in the October 2020 ‘London Roar’, here is a listing of a further nine London members who lost their lives, and who are recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). The list this month includes P J Stone, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and an Australian member, J Turnbull, who had a successful rowing career whilst in the UK.

Cyril Lascelles Morris. Flight Lieutenant, RAFVR, 12 Squadron. Killed in action on 13th August 1944, aged 31, and interred in Hanover War Cemetery, coll. grave 8, B12-17.

Elected 1933. Rowed in the Ladies Plate for Radley in 1931. Stroked the winning London Wyfolds’ crew of 1937 – see photo below.

The winning 1937 Wyfolds’ “Umbrage Four” which was stroked by Cyril L Morris, second from right. Older members will recognise, second left, John Pinches, who rowed at 3 and later won an MC in Italy, and seated right, Jack Ormiston, bow, who was elec… — The winning 1937 Wyfolds’ “Umbrage Four” which was stroked by Cyril L Morris, second from right. Older members will recognise, second left, John Pinches, who rowed at 3 and later won an MC in Italy, and seated right, Jack Ormiston, bow, who was elected a Vice President of the Club after the War. Seated left is Harold Carter, 2 in the crew, known to his friends as ‘Tootles’.

Forbes O’Rorke. Lieutenant, NZ Infantry, 20th Battalion. Killed in action on 28th April 1941, aged 34, and interred in Phaleron War Cemetery, Greece, grave 13.D.6.

Elected 1926. Rowed for Jesus College, Cambridge in the Thames Cup crew in 1924, the Grand of 1925 and of the Ladies Plate (winners) in 1926.

Edwin Russell Roseveare. Surgeon Lieutenant, RNVR. Died on 14th February 1944, aged 27, in a sanatorium, whilst on active service, and buried at Woking (St John’s) Crematorium, panel 4. MBBS London, Guy’s Hospital.

Elected 1934. Rowed for Guy’s in the Wyfolds’ in 1936.

Alwyn Oswald Laurence Stevens. Flying Officer, RAFVR, 99 Squadron. Killed in action on 7th November 1940, aged 23. Interred in Felixstowe New Cemetery, block B, section L, grave 24.

Elected 1937. Rowed for Trinity College, Oxford, both in the Ladies Plate and the Wyfolds’ in 1937, and in the Grand in 1938.

Ian Reginald Winn Stileman. Sub Lieutenant, RNVR. Killed in action on board the Q-ship HMS Cape Howe on 21st June 1940. Commemorated on Portsmouth Naval Memorial, panel 44, col. 2. Son of Commander Arthur M C Stileman, RN.

Elected 1939.

Philip John Stone. Flight Lieutenant, RAFVR, 50 Squadron. Killed in action on 13th June 1943, aged 25, and interred with four other crew members in Tubbergen (Reutum) R C Cemetery, Netherlands, row U, grave 3. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Elected 1935. Rowed in the Thames Cup in 1939 (with H H Elliot. qv).

Maurice Swithinbank. Sub Lieutenant (A), RNVR, HMS St Angelo (Fleet Air Arm), 830 Squadron. Swordfish pilot. Reported missing, presumed killed, on 7th February 1942 and commemorated on Lee-on-Solent (Hants) Memorial, bay 4, panel 2.

Elected 1938. Rowed for First Trinity, Cambridge, in the Thames Cup in 1937, and in the boat club’s Ladies Plate crews in both 1938 and 1939.

Anthony Beresford Tisdall. Flying Officer RAFVR, 224 Squadron. Died in an accident on board a Lockheed Hudson on 16th October 1940, aged 21, and interred in Killead (St Catherine) Church of Ireland Churchyard, Aldergrove, Northern Ireland, section 24, grave 7.

Elected 1938. Rowed for Brasenose College, Oxford, in the Thames Cup in 1937, the Visitors’ in 1938, and in both the Visitors’ and the Wyfolds’ in 1939.

John Turnbull. Flying Officer, Royal Australian AF. Killed in action on 1st January 1942, aged 25, and commemorated on Ambon Memorial, Indonesia, col. 8. BA Cantab, Dip Agr.

Elected 1936 as an undergraduate member. Rowed for Clare College, Cambridge, in the Ladies Plate in 1936 and (winners) in 1937 and in the Grand in 1938. Also rowed for Leander in the Stewards’ in 1938 (winning crew) and in the Grand in 1939. Won Gold medal in the English VIII at British Empire Games, Sydney, in 1938 under the colours of Clare College, Cambridge (with B S Beazley, D G Kingsford and T Turner, qvv). Rowed in the winning Cambridge crew in the Boat Race in 1939.

The final article next month will list the remaining members we have been able to identify from the CWGC records, two members who appear to have been entered on the Roll of Honour in error, and make mention of a recipient of the Victoria Cross won near Monte Cassino in Italy who joined the Club as an active Full Member in 1946.

Julian Ebsworth
LRC Librarian & Archivist

Part 5 will be published in the February edition of the London Roar.

ROWING FOR LRC FROM 1962-67

PART 4a: A REMINISCENCE, 1965-66

Following Henley fortnight, the next regatta in 1965 was Henley Town, but we skipped this and on 14th August, Jacque and I were married in Caversham. Thanks to Peter Hilditch there was a full arch of eight oars at the church, with Tom Phelps in full Doggett’s Coat and Badge in attendance. And thanks to Len Habbitts we had a fabulous reception at Leander. We then were taken away upriver in “Amaryllis”, my favorite Henley launch, to our car which was suitably decorated, and in the next days a sailing boat trip with Giles Chichester. So, we faced another year and I was determined to row but was now commuting from Chesham to Moorgate to Putney Bridge to Chesham every day.

Somehow the next captain, Bob Marks (1965/66) brings to mind the subject of cars. Bob used to drive a white 1100, which was a larger front-wheel-drive mini. Bob used to drive this at high speed down twisting country lanes, but the front-wheel-drive always seemed to get him around bends and he never crashed. But this story is about Desmond. Desmond was into Chartered Surveying and Property Consulting, and he drove a Standard Vanguard Estate complete with steel front and rear bumpers. Desmond as usual was speeding down a country lane somewhere when an 1100 came the other way. The driver probably thought Desmond was hogging the road, so he did a small wiggle towards the center of the road, but he had misjudged Desmond’s steel bumpers which cut the side of the 1100 from end to end like a can opener, the side of the car then proceeded to drop down on to the road. Desmond stopped etc. but could see no damage to his bumper other than a slight bend. The other car was written off.

And I was in Simon’s car the day we were heading into Wales on a Friday evening, and had already mentioned to him that the petrol light was on, but no response. Well of course halfway through Wales we ground to a stop in the middle of nowhere, we usually used back roads, not the trunk roads. A man was standing nearby so Simon asked him pointing ahead, how far to the nearest gas station. Oh, about 2,500 miles said the man (NY). Ultimately the others walked north to the trunk road for the petrol whilst I was left to guard the car and trailer with the boats. Very scary! The final story about one of Simon’s cars was when he had the upmarket Citroen with the long sloping back. In those days you could park long term in front of Ruvigny Mansions, so he did. On returning one evening he said to me, why is there water on my back shelf? Suddenly it dawned on him that it was Thames water and his car had been submerged, it was a write-off. Steve had an MGB, which terrified me on the M4 at just 70mph. Desmond at that time had an E-Type Jaguar and I had a Mini.

Colin Smith
LMBC & LRC

Part 4b: ‘1965-66’ will be published in the February edition of the London Roar.

VOGALONGA 2021

Although I don't think it has snowed in Venice for nearly two years, I couldn't resist including this photograph. How serene can La Serenissima be!

*It’s all very well but this is pushing serenity too far.*

Last year we had forty people lined up to come to Venice for the Vogalonga. Twenty-five of these were potential participants (including Jeremy Hudson’s Querini crew) and fifteen were supporters. I think this may have been a record number for our group.

As we all know only too well, this event, like pretty well everything else at the time, had to be cancelled.

At the moment, we have absolutely no idea whether this year's Vogalonga, provisionally scheduled to take place on the 23rd May, will take place.

However, being an optimist, three weeks ago I decided to contact everyone who had signed up for last year's trip to see if any of them would like to come to Venice this year. Twenty-three have confirmed that they are keen to do so.

If you would like to be added to my list of possible participants or supporters, please will you email me (miles.preston@londonrc.org.uk) to let me know.

Please don't feel that by indicating that you would like to come, there will be any obligation to do so.

What I am trying to do at this stage is draw up a list of possible attendees so that, as things develop, I can email these people with updates.

I am not very optimist that this trip will go ahead but at least we can be ready to put a group together if it does.

Best wishes to everyone for 2021.

Miles Preston
Vogalonga group organiser

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