Jack Beresford - the Greatest of Them All

The other day, HTBS got an e-mail with some questions about the legendary oarsman Jack Beresford, Jnr, (1899-1977), which made me look for a film about Beresford's and his Olympic medals on YouTube. At five Olympic Games from 1920 to 1936, he took five medals, three gold and two silver. The story of Beresford Jnr., and his Olympic medals and many cups at Henley is wonderfully told in the 1989 BBC series Tales of Gold. The following episode is about Beresford, the greatest oarsman in the pre-Steve Redgrave era. Enjoy! (The narrator - Kenneth Branagh - is mentioning Jack's father, Julius, and his Olympic silver medal in the 1912 Stockholm Games. The British crew took a silver in the coxed four, not the coxless four.)

Another F. S. Kelly ‘Henley Prize’ went under the Hammer

F. S. Kelly

Greg Denieffe writes:

A new Sporting Memorabilia sale by Graham Budd Auctions took place in Sotheby’s, 34-35 New Bond Street, London, on 5 and 6 November. The full catalogue is online and as in recent sales, there were a few lots (240-245) of interest to collectors of rowing memorabilia. Undoubtedly, the star ‘rowing’ item was a Ladies’ Plate Medal won by F. S. Kelly in 1899.

Lot 240

A Henley Regatta prize medal for the Ladies Challenge Cup in 1899 won by Frederick Septimus Kelly, the Eton College Stroke, the rim named to F.S. KELLY. F.S. Kelly later rowed for Oxford and Leander and won a gold medal at the 1908 Olympic Games as a member of the coxed eight. By profession he was a musician and composer. Having survived Gallipoli, Kelly was killed in action in the last days of the Battle of the Somme. Estimate: £300 - £500

Sold for £240 (plus commission, 17,5 %)

Early in 2012, HTBS reported that Kelly’s Pineapple Cup sold at Bonhams for £3,800. This was his prize for winning the 1905 Diamond Challenge Sculls, his third victory in four years. His first win in the Diamonds was for Balliol College, Oxford, when he won in 1902 beating Raymond Etherington-Smith in the final. Balliol College has the sculls in their historic collections centre in St Cross Church. The following year, sculling for Leander Club, he retained his title beating Julius Beresford, and in 1905 he defeated Harry Blackstaffe. Not to be outdone, the River and Rowing Museumin Henley has a 1905 scull in their collection.

Kelly, a New South Welshman by birth – his father was Irish – also won The Grand Challenge Cup at Henley three times in succession (1903-1906), The Stewards’ Challenge Cup in 1906 and a gold medal for Great Britain at the 1908 Olympics in the eights. He is remembered on the Bisham War Memorial.

Two other lots caught my eye:

Lot 244

Rowing programmes, Durham Regatta 22.6.1938; Maidenhead Amateur Regatta 3.8.1929; Henley Royal Regatta 2.7.38 & 5.7.52; Oxford University Summer Eights 26.5.1936, 22.5.1937 & 24.5.46; Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race 30.3.1946; Oxford University Torpids’ Race Card 21.2.1939; the lot also including a 12-page booklet Henley 1839, red cloth boards; and an Ouse Amateur Sailing Club Regatta at Denver (11). Estimate: £130 - £160

Sold for £110 +

A very diverse collection that would probably do well on eBay split into individual lots. The Henley booklet is rather grand considering it only consists of 12 pages.

Lot 245

A portrait of the British rower Tony Butcher by an unknown hand, oil on canvas, 68.5 by 53cm., 27 by 21in., framed. Estimate: £200 - £300

Sold for £150+

I like the composition of this portrait. The decorated oars are clearly important mementos of a rowing career that saw victory in the 1947 University Boat Race (Cambridge) and The Grand Challenge Cup in 1948 (Thames Rowing Club) and participation in the 1948 Olympic Games (Great Britain 4-).

My first thought on seeing this picture was that Cyril Bird would have enjoyed it. He used the pen name ‘Fougasse’ and in 1948 had a cartoon published in Punch with the caption "Yes, I did row a little at one time – why, how did you discover that?"  Perhaps Oscar Wilde was right, when he opined in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying that, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”.

The other rowing related lots sold for:
241 sold for £160+
242 sold for £240+
243 sold for £100+

All but Lot 245 sold to room bidders.

It’s Movember again!

Two nice-looking chaps with moustaches: A. H. Cloutte and J. Beresford, with the 'demon' attacking the strokeside oar. Despite that, the Thames oarsmen did not have a problem winning the 1911 Silver Goblets.

Today it’s the first of Movember, the first day in the month when we are to celebrate the moustache. Well, it’s actually a global campaign to raise funds for men’s health, especially to fight prostate and testicular cancers. Celebrating Movember has been a great deal among rowers, men and women, in Great Britain, and British Rowing has stood behind the campaign in earlier years and is doing so again this year.

However, the Mo-Movement is growing, just like your moustaches should do this month, and more and more men and women are joining in by donating money for this good cause. Here is the official website “Movember 13” in the USA.

Just like last year when I wrote about this on HTBS, I had to go back in time to find some oarsmen with some stylish ‘Mos’, and on top you see Arthur Cloutte and Julius ‘Berry’ Beresford (bow) of Thames RC, winners of the 1911 Silver Goblets at Henley. This photograph has been famous as the ‘Demon picture’, a devil ‘attacking’ the stokeside oar.

My children and I supporting Movember (photograph taken yesterday, just before Halloween's trick-or-treating).

To round off this piece, allow me to quote myself from last year:

‘Although, I wholeheartedly support a campaign like this, my dear wife, Mrs. B., made it clear already when we dated (in Wales, as a matter of fact) in the 1990s that our relationship would never last if I grow a moustache, or any other facial hair. Then, on top of that, a couple of years ago, our cute children could not stop laughing when I showed them my old Swedish drivers license from the beginning of the 1980s showing me with my elegant ‘Mo’ – but to you who are allowed: Grow and Groom!’

2013 Rowing History Forum: Not just for Nerds...

Henley’s River and Rowing Museum (RRM). The Times newspaper recently put it on its list of the top fifty museums in the world.

Last Saturday, 12 October, the Rowing History Forum was held at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames. Here is HTBS’s Tim Koch’s report:

For many people the prospect of spending the day at something entitled ‘The Rowing History Forum’ holds about as much appeal as a 5k ergo test. However, those who attended the fourth such event at the River and Rowing Museum on 12 October had no regrets. They were entertained and informed by tales of things such as the largest oared vessel ever built or of cheating death on the high seas. Add to these stories of bloody blazers, a levitating sculler and Dutch foetuses and there was something for everyone.

Professor Boris Rankov, six times Boat Race winner and professor of Roman history, spoke eloquently on rowing galleys in the ancient world. The unpredictable winds of the Mediterranean resulted in the development of rowing rather than sailing boats for both trade and war. Originating with craft having a single tier of 25 rowers on each side, one man to an oar, from 600 BC a second and later a third level of oars were added to increase power. As it was impracticable to add a fourth level, from 500 BC extra men were added to each blade and within 200 years there were oars manned by eight people, some pushing and some pulling. By 200 BC, Ptolemy IV of Egypt had built a galley of 137 metres / 450 feet in length. Its longest oars were 19 metres / 62 feet and it was rowed by 4,000 oarsmen (though, not surprisingly, it moved ‘precariously and with difficulty’).

Professor Boris Rankov with the museum’s mock-up of a section of a trireme (from the Latin meaning ‘three banks of oars’).

Doggett’s Coat and Badge winner Bobby Prentice enthralled the audience with an account of how he and another Doggett’s man, Colin Briggs, fought for survival when their boat overturned during the infamous 2005 Atlantic Rowing Race. Even Bobby’s humorous and self-deprecating style could not disguise the fact that it was a story that could easily have ended in tragedy.

The River and Rowing Museum curators gave the Forum an update on some recent acquisitions and projects in progress. Chris Dodd reported on an unpublished manuscript written by Julius Beresford which may give new information on his famous fall out with coach Steve Fairbairn. Chris also talked about a possible ‘e-book’ on Tyne rowing. Eloise Chapman showed the recently donated archive of Lucy Pocock (of the famous rowing and boat building family) who was a women’s sculling champion before the 1914 – 1918 War and later went to the United States where she briefly coached women’s rowing at the University of Washington.

Lucy Pocock pictured in a silver frame that she won as a prize at Henley Town and Visitor’s Regatta in 1906.

Eloise also spoke of the British Rowing / Amateur Rowing Association film collection recently given to the museum. It is hoped that it would be available online sometime in the future. Suzie Tilbury displayed an 1844 rowing vest, perhaps the oldest one known, and a Henley prize from 1848, a model wherry in silver. Delightfully, it was won by a local man and it has stayed in Henley ever since.

The silver wherry won by Henry Sergeant in 1848 for the event run between 1845 and 1850 for ‘amateur scullers residing within twelve miles of Henley on Thames’.

Peter Mallory is both a rowing and an art historian and so was well qualified to talk on the recent River and Rowing Museum acquisition, the 19th-century portrait of Newcastle sculler Edward Hawks. Peter showed the historical processes which resulted in this work by very cleverly juxtaposing classic paintings with the Hawks and other rowing pictures. He then spoke on the social and economic story behind its commission and execution. Possibly, the painting was a ‘vanity project’ by Hawks, who may have hoped to sell prints of it. The painter himself had no pretensions at great art. Among other things, the body proportions are wrong, the boat is depicted in a very crude way and the figure appears to be hovering above the ground. Strangely, it is still a delightful picture.

Edward Hawks, sculler (left) and Peter Mallory, art and rowing historian (right).

A glimpse into the fascinating history of Dutch student rowing was given by Rob Van Mesdag. Before the 1939 – 1945 War, Dutch freshmen had to become what were called ‘foetuses’ and undergo harsh initiations before joining student boat clubs. The big event in Dutch student rowing then and now is the regatta known as ‘The Varsity’, founded in 1878. It is an event full of tradition such as the members of the winning university swimming out to the victorious boat and (according to this) throwing coxswains at frozen chickens. Post Varsity celebrations are famously drunken affairs and there seems to be a large amount of nudity. A more explicit picture is here but I am pleased to see that these chaps follow Henley rules and keep their ties on. Click on these thumbnails for more health and safety violations.

Algemene Rotterdamse Studenten Roeivereniging (‘Skadi’) wins the 124th Varsity in 2007. Picture: P. Kemps.

A meticulously researched work by Ian Volans was entitled ‘What was it about Victorian Oarsmen? Rowers who helped to shape other sports’. In particular, EC Morley of London RC and HT Steward of Leander were among the seven founders of soccer’s Football Association and JG Chambers of CUBC and Leander formulated boxing’s ‘Queensbury Rules’.

A tantalising preview of his forthcoming book on rowing blazers was given by Jack Carlson. The lavishly illustrated publication will show the great, the good and the ordinary of the rowing world resplendent in the blazers of their club or country, all pictured by a top fashion photographer. Jack also debunked some ‘blazer myths’ including the one that the scarlet blazer of St John’s College, Oxford, commemorates an oarsman killed when St John’s attached a sword to their bow at a bump race.

Jack Carlson in front of the museum’s current exhibition of rowing blazers.

To summarise a presentation by Terry Morahan is a difficult task as he always seems to have several highly involved researches into rowing history going on at once. However, this year two of them seem to have reached very satisfactory conclusions. With Leander founded in 1818, it is usually thought that the world’s second oldest public rowing club is Der Hamburger und Germania Ruder Club (1836), but Terry claims it is in fact the (Royal) Northern Yacht Club which was established in Belfast in 1824 and today is based on the Clyde in Scotland. Records show that a race ‘for four oared gigs the property of members of the club’ was held in 1825. For his next trick, Terry produced ‘the oldest rowing blazer in the world’. It was the Eton School rowing jacket worn by General Sir George Higginson (1826 – 1927) in 1844. Much to the surprise and delight of all present, Terry then presented it to the River and Rowing Museum. It was a rather nice end to a most enjoyable day and thanks are due to all the speakers, the RRM, the Friends of Rowing History and American Friends of the RRM.

Terry Morahan (left) presents ‘the oldest rowing blazer in the world’ to Chris Dodd of the River and Rowing Museum.

Greg Denieffe: Jack Beresford – The Early Years, Part 1

Jack Beresford is one of the most famous of oarsmen in the history of rowing although it is now 35 years ago he died, in 1977. In a three-piece article HTBS’s Greg Denieffe writes about Beresford and the school that made him a man and an oarsman, Bedford School. Greg writes,

There is a wonderful entry by Christopher Dodd for Jack Beresford in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB). If you have a British library card you can access the online edition for free. Like most reviews of Jack’s life, it concentrates on his remarkable rowing career with Thames Rowing Club and his five Olympic medals. HTBS readers will be familiar with his long international rowing career (1920-1939) and his ten Henley medals, two Olympic silver medals (1920 and 1928) and three Olympic gold medals (1924, 1932 and 1936).

The first paragraph of the ODNB briefly covers Jack’s early years:

Beresford, Jack [formerly Jack Beresford Wiszniewski] (1899–1977), oarsman, was born at 36 St Mary’s Grove, Chiswick, Middlesex, on 1 January 1899, the elder son and eldest of the three children of Julius Beresford Wiszniewski (b. 1868) and his wife, Ethel Mary Wood. *His father, Julius, was taken to Britain from Poland by his governess at the age of twelve, and became a furniture manufacturer. Jack was educated at Bedford School, served with the Artists’ Rifles in 1917, was commissioned in the Liverpool Scottish regiment, and was wounded in the leg in northern France in 1918. At school his sporting ambitions were directed at rugby, but prescribed physiotherapy of rowing a dinghy at Fowey, Cornwall, turned him to rowing. He then entered his father’s business, and began working at the furniture factory Beresford and Hicks, of Curtain Road, London.

LONDON – Roots
In 1903, Jack and his parents moved to The Belfairs, 19 Grove Park Gardens, Chiswick, London W4 3RY and lived there throughout his youth, during his time as a boarder at Bedford School, and throughout his glittering rowing career and up until his marriage in 1940. According to Gillian Clegg, compiler of chiswickhistory.org.uk, the house, the largest in Grove Park, was built in 1898 with its own coach house and rooms above.

English Heritage erected a blue plaque on the wall of the house to commemorate his time at this address. There is a photograph of the house on their website. His birth place lies a few streets away. Thames Rowing Club hosted the unveiling of the plaque in 2005.

BEDFORD SCHOOL – The making of a man
In 1913, Jack started at Bedford Grammar School and whilst there learnt to row, was elected “Captain of Boats” and stroked the first eight. His preferred sport was rugby and he made the first XV in the 1915-1916 season. They played 14 games winning seven and losing seven. Their coach H. A. Henderson quoted in the school journal summed up the season: “We finished the season a better side than we began… We are not now a dangerous side, but we are useful combination. The team is a very young one” (The Ousel, 25 March 1916).

The captain that year was the full back Basil McFarland who later played international rugby for Ireland (1920–1922). He retained the captaincy for the 1916-1917 season but as Bedford had done many times before, they changed their captain for the Easter Term and Jack took over for the rest of his time at the school. The overall results for 1916-1917 mirrored those of the previous year (P14, W7, L7). Owing to frost and raised railway fares the Easter Term was reduced to a single game against a Rolfe-Rogers XV which Bedford won 49-0. Five of the team gained representative honours during season “B A T McFarland, C K Davies, J Beresford, St J B Nitch and E R Peachey played for the Public Schools in the Christmas holidays” (The Ousel, 6 December 1917).

Jack’s exploits with an oar will be of more interest to readers of HTBS. Bedford School Boat Club was founded in 1861 and made its first appearance at Henley in 1879: they won the Public Schools’ Challenge Cup twice (1880 and 1881) rowing as Bedford Grammar School. The school’s next success at Henley would be as the first winners of the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup in 1946. The PE was retained in 1947 and again in 1948 and won for a fourth time in 1951. The First World War put an end to Henley Royal Regatta for five years and Jack did not get to race there for Bedford. Aylwin Simpson writing in his 1986 book Winning Waters, The Homes of Rowing had this to say about the situation:

Important as Henley was, the main event of the year for Bedford started in 1895 with its annual race against Shrewsbury School, rowed alternately on the Great Ouse and the Severn.

By 1916 Jack was stroking the 1st VIII and the race against Shrewsbury took place on the Severn on 22 June. The event that year also included a race for 2nd VIIIs and Shrewsbury produced a race card which gave the crew names and weights and the results of all previous races back to 1895.

In 1919, L. Cecil Smith edited a publication titled Annals of Public School Rowing. The chapter on Bedford School was contributed by the Rev. W. M. Askwith and this is probably the source of the above quote by Aylwin Simpson. However, the earlier work has an important insight to the quality of the Bedford crew of 1916:

In 1916 a challenge came from Eton to row them either at Eton or Henley in a boat borrowed from them, or on the Ouse. Bedford accepted for the last-named course, having already been away to Shrewsbury, but owing to the impossibility of fixing a mutually convenient date the race fell through. The Bedford crew of that year was without doubt the best on record, and would certainly not have disgraced itself even against such redoubtable antagonists. 

Bedford won the race by 8½ seconds in a time of 5.25 and Rev. Askwith also gave the result of the race for 2nd VIIIs:

In 1916 the second eight went over to Shrewsbury and beat the Shrewsbury second eight, but this fixture is not generally feasible.

The results of the Bedford School ‘In House’ fours and pairs events are also listed in the 1919 publication and the crew of R. C. L. White (bow) and J. Beresford (stroke) coxed by E. W. Parkes won the 1916 Crosbie Challenge Pair Oars. There was no race against Shrewsbury in 1917, the year Jack left Bedford, and therefore his 1916 exploits may be assumed to be his highest achievements on the water for the school.

THE OUSEL 1916
The Ousel, The Journal of Bedford Grammar School, covers in great detail the progress of the Boat Club and from this we get a detailed picture of Jack’s progress as an oarsman. He was not in the 1st VIII in 1915 when Bedford beat Shrewsbury by 3½ seconds on home water and he gets his first mention in the ‘Rowing Notes’ section in February 1916:

The weeding out process is gradually taking effect, and it is now possible to make a guess at the probable composition of the Eight for next term, subject always to surprises and disappointments caused by the racing capacity displayed in the House Fours.

BERESFORD’S style is more suited to a pair or sculling boat than to an eight. If he can learn to mark the beginning more firmly and clearly, not to bend his arms too soon, and so to hold out a longer finish, he might make a good seven. He races well, keeps good time, and has a really good idea of watermanship.

In total, the rowing profile of 18 boys is given together with a short report on the number of crews on the water since the previous September and the type of work (some fixed seat) that the boys were doing. (The Ousel, 26 February 1916).

The ‘Rowing Notes’ section of the 25 March 1916 edition of the journal previews the House Fours:

While frost and snow, rain and mist have imposed unwilling activity on mere landsmen, the House Fours have carried out their regular work in spite of considerable discomfort. Successive floods have given opportunities for rowing on livelier water than is usual on our river, and this ought to be a distinct advantage to next term’s Eight.

Each House Fours chances are previewed:

CRESCENT have W. Waldecker (bow), S. Waldecker, Schofiel, Beresford (stroke). They appear to be going in for the so-called ‘Sculling Style.’ They are fairly well together and taking to the eye, but seem to lack the drive of some of the other crews. In practice they already owe a great deal to Beresford, and the races may prove that the debt is still greater.

Following the races the journal reported:

CRESCENT showed to distinct advantage in both their races. It was easy to do this in their heat, but they deserve great credit for the way they kept their form and length when rowing a losing race in the Final. Beresford showed good watermanship and improved rhythm, but if he is going to row stroke in a light eight he must learn to show his crew a much marked beginning.

The report concludes by confirming “The Shrewsbury race, on the Severn, has been fixed for Thursday, June 22nd. If all the likely heavy-weights can acquire the necessary quickness and polish, the crew will probably be one of the heaviest that has ever represented the School”. (The Ousel, 5 April 1916).

The focus was now on the forthcoming race with Shrewsbury and May’s journal reported:

The Eight started practice for the Shrewsbury race on Friday, May 5th, in the following order: .... J. Beresford (stroke). On May 10th, the 1912 light ship was used, and there was comparatively little rolling, although, owing to the want of smartness at the beginning, the boat was running away from them a good deal.

BERESFORD is a better hand at moving a boat than he is at stroking one. He has done so much rowing that many of his faults appear almost incurable. The success or failure of the crew largely turns on whether he can learn to give them the necessary steadiness and ease in the swing forward, followed by a crisp and decided “attaque.” (The Ousel, 24 May 1916).

In the June journal there were reports on various timed pieces, and despite a poor performance on 22 May, described as probably the slowest and worst piece of rowing by the School crew for many years, by 2 June they had improved enough so that over the course from the Town Bridge to the Three Trees the previous record was broken by 2½ seconds. The report went on to add that “Beresford and Simpson received their Colours on May 23rd”. (The Ousel, 9 June 1916).

The School journal of 8 July dedicated four pages to the Shrewsbury races. It covered the final preparations on the Ouse and the travel arrangements as well as detailed race reports on both the 1st and 2nd VIIIs.

Along the straight and round the second bend we steadily increased our lead, finally winning, with something to spare by 8½ seconds. The time, 5 mins. 25 secs., was distinctly fast considering that the wind was against the crews until they rounded the final bend.

The School crew rowed right at the top of their form, and Shrewsbury critics confirmed the impression given in the last few days on the Ouse that they are the fastest crew that Bedford has turned out.

Beresford stroked his crew with judgment, he gave them time both at the finish and on the swing forward, and seeing that he had the race well in hand never bustled his crew at any part of the course. (The Ousel, 8 July 1916).

Bedford School 1st VIII – J. Beresford at stroke

BEDFORD SCHOOL B.C.  v  SHREWSBURY SCHOOL B.C.

At Shrewsbury, 22 June, 1916.

The next publication of The Ousel on 27 July, 1916, had a real gem of a supplement; a group photograph of the combined Shrewsbury and Bedford crews that raced on 22 June 1916. Jack Beresford proudly wearing his 1st VIII blazer, collar turned up. No names are given, but none are needed to identify him. One can assume that many of those photographed did not see the end of the Great War that would engulf the world a couple of years later.

Jack Beresford aged 17.

The same issue gives the results of the heats and final of the School Senior Pairs held on 10, 11 and 12 July. As mentioned above Jack and his partner R. C. L. White coxed by E. W. Parkes won the event after racing a heat, semi-final and final over the three days. “The winners were a good pair, and had they been pressed would have beaten the 2.45 done in 1910”.

Under the heading "1st VIII Characters, 1916" the journal has this to say about Jack:

J. BERESFORD (stroke). – A really fine waterman, a strong oar, and when it came to racing, a good and level-headed stroke. In practice, especially in the early stages, he was inclined to try much too fast a stroke, and, in addition, he never had any idea of counting his rate of striking. At the end of practice he was showing his crew the beginning fairly well, and was driving out a fairly long finish, but even then he must have been a difficult stroke to follow.

This edition of the journal has one final mention of Jack Beresford: another victory too, not his most famous but perhaps his most unusual. He coxed CRESCENT to win the House ‘Junior’ Eights beating both ASHBURNHAM in a heat and ST. CUTHBERT’S in the final. (The Ousel, 27 July 1916).

AFTER BEDFORD – Gone but not forgotten
On leaving school he served in the First World War in France where, still a teenager he was shot in the leg. This ended his rugby career and after the war he concentrated on rowing. He joined Thames Rowing Club and his first year there (1919) is described in Geoffrey Page’s 1991 book Hear the Boat Sing: The History of Thames Rowing Club and Tideway Rowing as follows:

Although he did not compete at Henley that year, Berry’s son Jack was beginning to make his mark. He had stroked the Bedford School during the war and had later been wounded in the leg on active service. At 19 [sic] he made his first appearance at Marlow, winning the junior sculls. He followed this up by winning the junior-senior event at Kingston and the senior event at Molesey. He stroked a four and a Thames Cup eight, both of which won at Staines.
 
The following year, Jack won his first Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley and his first Olympic medal in Antwerp and the rest, as they say, is history. He was a very proud 'Old Bedfordian' and the oak sapling presented to him after his victory at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games was planted in the school grounds. You can read an earlier HTBS post about the Bedford School ‘Hitler Oak’ here.

In 2011, Bedford School Boat Club celebrated their 150th anniversary with a ball on the 5 March, and on display were the cased medals won by Jack Beresford which were on loan from the River and Rowing Museum at Henley-on-Thames. A games room was also named in his  honour  and The Old Bedfordian club reported the occasion in the June 2011 edition of their journal OB Review:

Until Sir Steve Redgrave CBE powered across the finish in Sydney, OB and Pemberley House boy Jack Beresford (13-17) laid claim to the world’s greatest oarsman title, having won three gold and two silver Olympic medals in successive Olympics. But Jack wasn’t the only Beresford to row or the first Beresford at Pemberley (see note below). With both his OB father and nephew Michael Beresford (47-53) Olympic oarsman, the Beresfords are thought to be the only family in history with three generations of Olympic finalists in the same discipline and to have won c.1000 top class races between them. Michael returned to Pemberley in March with his wife, Roma, to help celebrate the opening of the Jack Beresford Games Room and to attend the Bedford School Boat Club 150th Anniversary Ball.

Jack’s son, John, was also invited but he was away for the anniversary, which, John writes, “was a great pity as I also was Captain of Boats in 1964. My cousin Michael took my place in opening the Jack Beresford Games Room at Pemberley, but I have been able to give them some pictures, sculls etc.”

Note - Bedford School has six houses. Each house consists of a day house and a partnering boarding house. Whilst these are the official house names, it is common for boarders to refer to their house by the name of their boarding house. Jack’s house was officially called ‘Crescent’. The day house is situated in a two storey building towards the south of the school site. The boarding house ‘Pemberley’, is situated just off site on Pemberley Avenue. The house colours are black and white.

Beresford Road, Bedford, England.

In 1947, Bedford Borough Council adopted as public highway; Beresford Road. It is very close to The Embankment which runs alongside the stretch of the river Great Ouse on which Jack learned to row. According to the council, the road would have been built shortly after the Second World War and was named in honour of Jack Beresford although they could not say exactly how the name came about.  On 12 August, 2012, Bedford local paper, Bedfordshire on Sunday printed an interesting article about Jack with the title 'Historic Olympic hero shouldn't be forgotten'. It is a sentiment that I, and many readers of HTBS wholeheartedly agree with.

Part 2 will be posted tomorrow.

*See information about Julius Beresford here.

1912 Thames RC's Olympic Silver

Thames RC coxed four took an Olympic silver medal in Stockholm in 1912: bow Julius Beresford, 2 Karl Vernon, 3 Charles Rough, stroke Bruce Logan and cox Geoffrey Carr.

Out of the twenty-four British oarsmen competing at the Stockholm Olympic rowing event one hundred years ago, Geoffrey Carr (1886-1969) is probably the least known of them all. Carr, who was born in Putney, was, according to Geoffrey Page in his magnificent Hear the Boat Sing: The History of Thames Rowing Club and Tideway Rowing (1991), an Anglian coxswain who had been recruited by Julius ‘Berry’ Beresford to steer the Thames RC’s four at the Olympic rowing regatta at Djurgårdsbrunnsviken in the Swedish capital.

In England at the time, the coxed four was regarded as a second-class boat type ever since ‘Guts’ Woodgate had invented the coxless four at Henley in 1868. But as the race course was not really straight on Djurgårdsbrunnsviken and the boats were also to go under a couple of bridges, the Swedish regatta organizers had insisted that the boats competing should have a cox – of course with the exception of the single sculls. Berry and his comrades in the coxless four were therefore forced to train in a coxed four with Carr. The boat they used was twenty years old, Page writes in his book about Thames RC. As Henley Royal Regatta was only a fortnight before the Olympic regatta, Berry’s crew was also training in the coxless four and in the pairs.

In the final of the Stewards’, Thames, with Berry, Karl ‘Bean’ Vernon, Charles Rough and Bruce Logan, met New College, Oxford, stroked by R. C. ‘Bob’ Bourne, who earlier in March and April, had won both The Boat Races (at the first row Cambridge sank). Thames was in the lead of most of the race, but at the Enclosure New College was slightly ahead and by then the air went out of Berry’s crew. ‘Bean was convinced that this defeat was due mainly to their having practised so much with a cox, though doubling up in the pairs again cannot have helped’, Page states.

In the Olympic final in the coxed four, Ludwigshafen proved to be too strong for the British four from Thames. The Germans who took the gold were: bow Albert Arnheiter, 2 Hermann Wilker, 3 Rudolf Fickeisen, stroke Otto Fickeisen and cox Otto Maier.

At the Olympics, Thames RC’s coxed four first had a row-over, and then beat the Norwegian crew from Studenternes in the quarterfinal, another Norwegian boat from Christiania in the semifinal, and met the Germans of Ludwigshafen Ruderverein in the final. After having rowed neck and neck for the first 500 metres, the German boat took a lead and won with two lengths.

I am not sure if Thames RC has celebrated that it is one hundred years ago that Berry’s crew took an Olympic silver medal, but reports from England tell the story how fifty of Geoffrey Carr’s family, from his daughter, Jane Jox 90, to his great-great-great grandchildren got together for a cruise on the Thames in his honour. Read more here.

In the chapter that wraps up the 1912 Olympic rowing in Page’s Hear the Boat Sing, the author writes about some of the Thames’s members who lost their lives in the Great War, among them Eric Fairbairn, whom HTBS has written about lately. Berry’s four was not spared. Page writes,

‘The unluckiest of all […] was probably Charles Rought. A prisoner of war almost from the beginning, he died after eating a bad oyster while waiting to be demobilized after his release, and so technically his death occurred while on active service. Requiescant in Pace’.

Tales Of Jack Beresford

For those of you who read HTBS regularly, Jack Beresford Jnr of Thames Rowing Club is by now a household name. He is one of the HTBS editor’s ‘rowing heroes’, not only because he was such a tremendous oarsman with five Olympic medals in five Olympic Games, but also because he was a true hero. When he was 70 – and I am quoting myself from my column ‘In this month…’ January/February 2010 Rowing & Regatta:

“… in summer 1969, when Jack was umpiring at the National School’s regatta at Pangbourne, a tragedy occurred that would cast a dark shadow over his final years. A member of the Norwich School eight caught a crab and was thrown overboard. Jack was quickly there with his launch, taking off his jacket and shoes, to dive in. A strong current took them both underwater and the boy slipped away. Jack was picked up by a launch, while the boy was later found dead. [- - -] Not being able to save the boy, Jack took the accident very hard.”

When I was in contact with Jack’s children Carina and John about this tragedy, they both agreed that due to this incident Jack sometime later lost the sight of an eye and his health began to declined. He died of a heart attack on 3 December, 1977.

I ended my little piece in the Rowing & Regatta with a highly valuable question: “…why has there never been a full-length biography written about this great, brave Olympian oarsman?”.

Well, my question still stands, but in 1989 BBC showed a fairly long film about Jack Beresford in the series Tales of Gold (also a book with the same title, published the same year). The other day this part was uploaded on YouTube – thank you, thank you for this cultural achievement! Here it is – enjoy:

Julius Beresford Wiszniewski

There exists a mystical aura around Julius Beresford Wiszniewski, his name and where he originally came from. One legend has it that ‘Berry’, as he was called, came to Britain with his governess, the son of a Polish aristocrat. Other stories say that he was born in Danzig and changed his surname, Wiszniewski, to the more English-sounding name, Beresford, when he moved to London.

Truth is that Berry had dropped his Polish surname for ‘Beresford’ when he was rowing for Kensington RC in the late 1890s and beginning of the 1900s, and later for Thames RC, but it was actually first on 23 February, 1914, that he officially changed his name to Beresford. Eight days later, a notice was published about his name change in the official journal of records, The London Gazette.

Allow me to also set some other facts straight: Julius Beresford Wiszniewski was born in 1868 in Tottenham! It was Berry’s father, Julius Bernard Wiszniewski, a corn merchant, who was born in 1832 in Danzig, which then was a part of Prussia (it had been, and would later be, either a so called free city by the name Gdańsk or belong to Poland).

Perhaps Berry’s name Beresford came from his mother’s side of the family. In 1866, Julius Bernard married Stella (nee Davey) who was born in 1846 in Herefordshire, Tim Wilson, archivist and Thames RC’s historian, has told me. In two censuses, 1881 and 1891, we can follow the Wiszniewski family’s journey. In the second census the younger Julius, now a furniture draughtsman, is listed as Beresford Wiszniewski. His name, Julius, is not included. He later founded the furniture manufacturing company Beresford & Hicks together with his sister Stella’s husband, Richard Hicks.

Berry would not be as famous as his son, Jack, plying the oar, but as a veteran he would meet with great success with his coxless four - Karl Vernon, ‘The Bean’; Charles Rought; and Bruce Logan - winning the 1908 International Fours at Amsterdam, the Stewards’ at Henley in 1909 and 1911. The latter year, Berry also won the Goblets together with another veteran, Arthur Cloutte. Their combined ages were 83 years, setting a course record at 8 min. 15 sec. In 1912, the four took an Olympic silver medal in the coxed four with Geoffrey Carr as cowswain. Berry kept on rowing up at an old age, dying at 91, in 1959.

Tom Everson: A Kensington RC Character

Not only did Tim Koch send me the copies of Steve Fairbairn’s letters, he also sent me some wonderful stories about an old member of Kensington RC, Tom Everson. I leave the scene over to Tim and Tom.

While looking for Steve’s letter I also found a wonderful piece by an old Kensington member, Tom Everson (1908-2008). He was active from 1928 to 1939 but maintained his membership and interest in the club until his death. His prose is pure Bertie Wooster, though even those not familiar with the works of P.G. Wodehouse [seen in the photograph] will still appreciate it:

[Tom Everson recollected] Piggy Eyre, Thames but also Kensington: “I remember a very bent heavily built old gentleman who would (weather permitting) come up onto the club balcony from time to time to watch the ‘shipping’. Deaf as a post - BUT he had his moments. At a club dinner once the elder John [Julius] Beresford was replying for the guests as from Thames Rowing Club. His speech (often the same one) was a sort of traditional rowing homily and (usually) rather long. Through the haze of tobacco smoke came Piggy’s booming voice ‘Why’s HE replying for the visitors? HE used to belong to this club YEARS AND YEARS AGO’. And again much later ‘IS HE STILL TALKING?’”

Other people remembered by Tom - in the style of Wodehouse with no nod to political correctness:

“Henry Castlemain. Old prep school friend of mine - went to sea - gained 2nd mates ticket - swallowed the anchor - was my best man. Killed in war defusing a Jerry bomb in Liverpool.

Howard Smart. Until you got to know him he gave the unfortunate impression of of a ‘public (private) school lout’. I went to finals day at Henley with him once. We both got very pickled indeed in the company of two very serious minded individuals from New College Oxford who drank nothing but WATER.I don't know how either of us got home - or how much of our sinful life we must have confided in them, but we both received polite little invitations to an Oxford Group Squash - a sort of earnest, hysterical self-examination orgy beloved of the late Dr Buchman. We didn’t go.

Major Lisle. President for a number of years. A keen cyclist, in fact, I believe, in the early years of the century, he was something of a pioneer in organising mobile infantry units. He was five foot nothing in height, had a round bullet head and a walrus moustache. In spite of his advanced years he would come down, collect an unwary crew of shy newcomers and take them afloat. He always stroked, and crammed in as many as he could to the minute, racing up and down his slide like a steam piston with his moustache puffed out in front of him. Tradition has it that he was once stroking a leading a crew in a race when a certain Frenchman in the crew suddenly threw away his oar, waved his arms in despair and shouted ‘I CAN ROW NO MORE. I DIE. I AM OUT OF BREETH’.

There was a time when we went a little international:

Eckhaus. A little blond German with a ready smile. I was never sure where he fitted in the German political spectrum. He might have been Semitic in which case our nickname for him of ‘Adolf’ could have been hurtful but it never seemed to worry him seriously.

Zimmerman. A Czech who frightened the life out of us with his fitness.... I once pointed out the club dartboard to him and his comment was ‘For TRAININK JA?’

Broady Broadbridge. 1914/18 veteran, got the MC, had a fixed idea on the absence of intestinal fortitude in all foreigners. Had two daughters that he referred to as his ‘coxless pair’.

Just before the War (we had several members who) belonged to the ‘Westminster Dragoons’ (a Territorial Army / National Guard Armoured Unit). Rude non military types like me refereed to them as ‘Hyde Park Lancers’. There was a tendency for ‘bum freezer’ mess jackets to appear at Club Dances.

SERIOUSLY though, I love to remember bitterly cold still frosty Sunday morning when we manned the boats. The first mile was HELL with hands stiff and numb with cold. Then the blood would start circulating and the boat would travel smoothly over the dead calm water as we settled down to alternate firm and light paddling up to the Doves at Richmond where we landed for a sandwich and a glass of beer. Then back in the afternoon. We gained a wonderful belief in ourselves, I remember few things in life I have enjoyed so much. My eternal thanks to the Club.”

“Nicely put,” Tim writes, and I agree. They don’t make them like that anymore… Thank you Tim, for yet another brilliant and entertaining entry, and for the copies of the Fairbairn letters!

Berry And The 'Demon'

Now, I have said it before and I will say it again: Tim Koch of Auriol Kensington RC in London is a man you can trust. In an e-mail from yesterday Tim writes about my entry about Julius ‘Berry’ Beresford, “With reference to your recent item on Jack Beresford Senior ('Berry'), do you know the 'Demon of the River' photograph? The attached copy is from a 1950 edition of Rowing magazine and shows the spray forming what seems to be a little devil attacking his boat.” No, although I have seen this photograph earlier, I have to confess I have never heard about the ‘Demon’ – great photo!

Tim continues in his e-mail, “We have a fine picture of Jack Senior at Auriol Kensington. He wanted to make Kensington a rival to Thames and London but the club was not as ambitious and so he went to Putney to become what Geoffrey Page called the best Captain Thames ever had. Page should know, his father, Freddie, signed him up as a cadet member of Thames RC at the age of six weeks. He would later write the book Hear the Boat Sing: A History of Thames Rowing Club and Tideway Rowing (1991). Good title!” I was a little slower than Geoffrey’s father, I signed up my daughter Ingrid as a member of my Swedish rowing club, Malmö Roddklubb, when she turned 1 year.

Tim finish up his nice e-mail with a very promising note: “My Henley Stewards' Enclosure badge arrived in the post today - a sign that summer is on its way.” Now, there's a summer sign! Thank you, Tim!

Berry's Rowing Instructions

Julius Beresford, born in 1868 with the surname Wiszniewski which he later dropped, was a fine sculler who began his rowing career at Kensington RC. He failed to win the amateur title at the Wingfield Sculls and would never win the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta. However, after moving to Thames RC, he did win the Stewards’ Challenge Cup for coxless fours twice, in 1909 and 1911 at Henley; the latter year, Beresford also won the Silver Goblet’s & Nickalls Challenge Cup together with Arthur Cloutte.

At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Great Britain sent a Thames RC coxed four with the 44-year old Beresford in the bow seat. They lost the final and got the silver medal. Julius Beresford, by his fellow crew and club members called ‘Berry‘ or ‘Old Berry’, would for the rest of his life be involved in the sport of rowing. He would serve as Captain and a Vice President of Thames RC, and for decades be a devoted and strong-willed coach.

In the mid-1920s, Beresford had the infamous quarrel with the club's legendary coach Steve Fairbairn, which made Fairbairn leave the club to instead coach the London RC. Decades later, this would still be remembered at Thames RC as ‘The Row’. In 1954, Thames RC published a small, 4-pages pamphlet, Rowing Instructions by J. Beresford. One might guess that this was written by Beresford’s son, the celebrated oarsman, Jack Beresford, Jr., but it was not. The two last sentences go: “But if a crew is physically fit it need never lose its form or Rhythm. This is true and so says BERRY.” Julius Beresford died in 1959.

Nowadays, Berry’s little pamphlet is almost impossible to find in second-hand bookshops.