The Sculling Earl To Be

The photograph above shows twenty-one year old Hon. Rupert Guinness (1874-1967), who was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. During the mid-1890s, he was chasing the Nickalls’ brothers for either the title in the Diamonds or the Wingfields. In 1895, Guinness (sculling for Leander) defeated Guy Nickalls with a length and a half to take the Diamond Sculls, but was over-powered by Guy’s brother Vivian some weeks later for the Wingfield Sculls. The previous year had ended with the same result, Vivian overcoming Rupert in the Wingfields. However, in 1896 Rupert Guinness did take both the Diamonds and the Wingfields, in the latter race beating Vivian Nickalls.

In his Life’s A Pudding (1939), Guy Nickalls writes about Guinness (by then the Earl of Iveagh) “Rupert Guinness, although not what any one would term a born sculler, confined himself to sculling and obtained useful proficiency by dint of long and careful practice with East.” East, that Nickalls is mentioning, is the professional oarsman William G. East, Doggett winner (1887), sculling champion of England (1891), and author of Rowing and Sculling (1904).

Rupert Guinness would later be elected president of Thames RC, and in 1927, he succeeded his father as Earl of Iveagh and as chairman of the family’s famous brewing company in Dublin. When Guinness was depicted by Spy for Vanity Fair in November 1905 (on the right), he had become a little rounder all-over. Earl of Iveagh is also mentioned in an entry by Tim Koch on 26 March 2010, and a follow-up entry on 27 March 2010, and Hélène Rémond's entry from 8 April 2010.