A Sonnet To R.C. Lehmann

A Sonnet to R.C. Lehmann,
the Poet Laureate of Rowing

Hail you, the ‘Poet Laureate of Rowing’!
Your pen gave us quick, beautiful light verse
Of an old oar, oarsmen, and crews swinging;
Dear Father Thames was your soul’s universe.

Your name was not on any Henley cup,
You followed crews from both Isis and Cam;
And coaching Crimsons to get the blade up
- the old English style was on the programme.

Listen to the cox’n’s cry: “Let her go!”
Then to move the boat with a ‘happy slide’,
To do the catch without a splash, to row
And feel her smoothly on the water glide.

Rudie, are you from heaven’s distant shore,
Still searching, gazing for that ‘Perfect Oar’?


Rudolph Chambers – known as ‘R.C.’ or Rudie – Lehmann (3 January 1856 – 22 January 1929) was a poet, man of letters, humourist, oarsman, rowing coach, and sat in the Commons as a Liberal MP from 1906 to 1910. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was the president of the Union Society in 1876. Although a keen rower, he never made it to the Cambridge Blue boat. Lehmann rowed at Henley Royal Regatta in several races from 1877 to 1888, and has the noteworthy record of finishing last in every heat he participated in. In spring 1889, he began editing the undergraduates’ magazine Granta, and had his first piece published in Punch in the winter that year. Four months later, he was hired by the magazine to be on the editorial staff. His writings appeared in Punch until 1919.

Lehmann was the finishing coach for either Oxford or Cambridge during 1891-1903 (for both in 1892!). He also coached Leander Club, Trinity College, Dublin, Berlin Ruderklub, and Harvard University. Lehmann arrived at Cambridge, Massachusetts in November 1896 to coach Harvard, who at the time was in despair. He returned to England for Christmas, but came back to the US in the spring of 1897. In June that year, he was awarded an honorary degree at Harvard. In December, Teddy Roosevelt gave a dinner in Washington in honour of Rudie Lehmann’s services for rowing in England and the US. Lehmann also coached Harvard the next season, in 1898, and in September, he married Alice Mary Davis in Worcester, Massachusetts. Miss Davis was 24 years old, and Rudie was 42. They had four children, Helen, Rosamond, the novelist, Beatrix, the actress, and John, who also became a famous man of letters. Rudie Lehmann is still remembered today for his two books on rowing, Rowing (1897) and The Complete Oarsman (1908); his little pamphlet Tubbing (1882) is today impossible to get hold of. Among his most well-known light verse on rowing are “The Oarsman’s Farewell to his Oar”, “A Trinity Boating Song”, “Style and the Oar”, and “The Perfect Oar”.

2010 Harvard-Yale Regatta Aftermath

So, what are the newspapers writing about yesterday’s Yale-Harvard Regatta? The two papers in Boston have articles and so has the paper in New Haven. New London’s newspaper The Day has a couple of articles about the race, but also from the famous ‘rock’ and from Red Top, Harvard’s boathouse by the Thames River. You will also find links to Harvard’s and Yale’s athletic web sites below. Click on the links to read the articles.

Harvard Crew: Harvard Heavyweight Crew Sweeps Yale at 145th H-Y Regatta

Yale Crew: Bulldogs Hang Tough, But Harvard Holds On to Win The 145th

Boston Globe’s John Veneziano: Harvard is a wrecking crew

Boston Herald’s John Connolly: Sophs power Crimson into 145th race at Yale

New Haven Register’s Sean Barker: Yale pushes, but falls short at Regatta

The Day’s
Vickie Fulkerson: Harvard's steady cadence enough to beat Yale

Karin Crompton: These days, regatta is a bit less romantic (As a matter of fact, yours truly is interviewed in this article)

The Day also has two short, but nice videos about the race. Click below to watch them (and, yes, these DVDs can be bought from The Day).

Before the races



After the races

Samuel Hazard Gillespie Jr. - A Supporter of Yale Rowing For 70 Years!

A good story that was told yesterday at the Harvard-Yale Regatta on the Thames River was the one about Samuel Hazard Gillespie Jr. The first time he saw the Harvard-Yale race was in 1922, then from his father’s yacht, Harmony. Yesterday, he was back again, now on his own boat, Venture, which acted as the judge boat at the finish line. Gillespie bought this sail boat 30 years ago, in 1980, at the age of 70. “I named her Venture because it was quite a venture at my age,” he told the New London local newspaper, The Day, in an interview the other day.

Samuel Hazard Gillespie Jr., Yale class of 1932 (and 1935 graduate of Yale Law School), who was a coxswain for Yale for three years, has now supported Yale rowing for 70 years. Ever since Gillespie bought Venture, he has sailed her from his home in Piermont, New York state, on the Hudson River up to New London to watch the race.

Gillespie is still working at the Davis Polk & Wardwell law firm in New York City, where he has worked since 1948. He has argued several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York under the Eisenhower administration, one can read in the program of the 145th Harvard-Yale Regatta.

On 12 July 2010, Samuel Hazard Gillespie Jr., will turn 100 years young. He is expected to celebrate this with 100 relatives at the Century Club in New York. Please, allow me to say ‘Happy Birthday’ in advance!

A Clean Sweep For Harvard, Again!

Harvard coach Harry Parker and his varsity's winning crew: cox Kelly Evans, stroke Patrick Lapage, 7 Matt Edstein, 6 Nick Jordan, 5 David Wakulich, 4 Sam O'Connor, 3 Michael DiSanto, 2 Anthony Locke, bow Blake Pucsek (captain).

You had to be up and about early if you wanted to watch the first race between Harvard and Yale this morning. The freshmen’s race started already at 9:00 a.m., or a little thereafter. Last year, this race was won by Harvard at a time of 10:43.2, which was seven seconds faster than Yale’s 10:50.1. With cloudy skies, good water conditions, and a tailwind to push the two crews up the Thames River for their 2-mile race this morning, the Crimsons had no problem to take an early lead in the race. The Harvard crew crossed the finish line at 9:32.7 and Yale at 9:47.6. This was the Harvard freshmen’s fourth straight win, rowing against Yale.

A symbol for Harvard's clean sweep: the Rock is Red!

Harvard’s second varsity boat also took an early lead in the three-mile race that followed the first race. During the race, the Crimsons had a comfortable lead and there was never any question of which crew was going to claim the victory. Harvard’s winning time was 14:46.8. Yale was three boat lengths behind and crossed the finish line at 15:02.4. This was a repeat from last year when Harvard’s second varsity also won, but then only with two seconds.

For the main event in this regatta, the four-mile race between the universities' varsity boats, which started close to 11:00, the tailwind had shifted into a west crosswind, which is more difficult to row in. Like the Crimsons’ freshmen and second varsity, the varsity crew was rowing with longer strokes and under-stroked the Yale crew, which had a three-seat lead for most of the first mile. Harvard had, however, caught up with the Bulldogs before the 2-mile mark, and at 2.5 miles the Crimsons had a boat length lead. Even if the Yale crew fought bravely and refused to let go of the crew in front of them, Harvard rowed more relaxed knowing that they were going to claim their third straight victory. Harvard’s winning time was 19:40.3, and six seconds slower came Yale at 19:46.2. The Crimsons’ varsity now extended its all-time lead to 91 against Yale’s 54.

At Harvard’s boathouse, Red Top, a broom was quickly fetched from a closet to mark Harvard’s clean sweep. The broom travelled from oarsman to oarsman, and, of course to Kelly Evans, Harvard varsity’s female coxswain. As the tradition demands, she ended up in the water, as did the rest of the crew, whether they liked it or not. The crew’s legendary coach Harry Parker, who was doing his 48th season and has more victories under his belt than any other American coach, knew that he was also going to end up in the drink. So after his shoes and socks were removed, 1-2-3 and off he went high up in the air, only to land with a splash in the Thames River’s cold water. The smile on his face when he came up on the dock again told us that he did not mind.

The 145th Yale-Harvard Regatta

The 145th Yale-Harvard Regatta, which is the oldest intercollegiate athletic contest in the US, is tomorrow, Saturday morning on the Thames River, New London, Connecticut. The first race, for the freshmen, starts at 9:00 a.m., and will be followed by the junior varsity race. The varsity race will start at 10:45 a.m. All three races can be watched from several locations along the river, but Bartlett’s Cove, which is very close to the finish line, is the most popular place. The races will also be broadcasted on WKNL Kool 101 (100.9) and kool101fm.com. As usual, Charlie Hamlin (Harvard '70) and Yale lightweight coach Andy Card will be the ones giving us the excitement going on out on the water.

Yale’s web site says the following about the varsity race: “This is the 62nd upstream race between the rivals. Harvard holds a 38-23 edge in upstream races. Yale's 2007 win was the Bulldogs’ first upstream victory since 1984. The Bulldogs have won two of the last three downstream races. They have raced 61 times downstream on the Thames. Harvard holds a 35-26 advantage going in that direction.”

Wellington RC: The Dolly Varden Legacy

Today, I received an exciting e-mail from rower and rowing historian Michael Grace of New Zealand. He writes that at his club, Wellington RC’s 125th anniversary celebration on 15-16 May, Michael’s book, The Dolly Varden Legacy, on the club’s history was launched with great success. I had the pleasure to help Michael in September last year with some information and material I had on Tom Sullivan.

Tom Sullivan, who was a great professional sculler and later also a coach, was a member of Wellington RC, and of course there is a lot about Sullivan in Michael’s book.

Michael writes that, in early May, he met 80-year old Friedrich ‘Fritz’ Altenhuber, Hon. President of the First Viennese LIA Rowing Club. “Fritz used to be coached by Tom Sullivan when at LIA in the 40s! Now his granddaughter (!) is here in Wellington rowing! The connections have come full circle,” Michael says in his e-mail. On the left you can see a photograph of Fritz and Michael outside Wellington RC. Michael continues, “It was great talking to Fritz about his time under Tom. He was a very nice gentleman and very passionate about his rowing! Interestingly he said that Tom had had a son (out of wedlock), but he was unsure what happened to the son. Apparently he was living in England, but will be dead by now. It would be interesting to know if he had any living descendants.”

If you are interested in The Dolly Varden Legacy by Michael Grace, copies are available to purchase from the Wellington RC’s web site. The book is NZ$35, plus NZ$20 for international shipping (through PayPal). Click here to order.

Thank you, Michael for your information, and good luck selling the book!

The Calm Cove

The Calm Cove

He would row
Until he could not.
He would row
Until his last breath
Became a gasp,
Until he could no longer
Endure the ache in his sides.

It was about him.
It was about him not
Being defeated by himself,
Not being defeated by his being
Merely human.
Pride rowed him.
The gods went on alert.

The name Prometheus
Scrolled the god's lips,
He, the fire thief.
Could water, also,
Be conquered by man,
Made use of by man,
Over the gods' wishes?

His shell was found,
Empty, in a cove,
On the bosom of the water.
All was calm.
The passive sky was a placid blue.
The marsh grass made as if to comment,
But did not.

Philip Kuepper
(Spring 2010)

The Professionals

So, who were these professional oarsmen who had signed an agreement to boycott Charles Courtney “in order to protect” themselves and not row with or against him in any regatta, which I wrote about in yesterday’s entry? On the web you can find information about Wallace Ross and James A Ten Eyck on Wikipedia. (Ten Eyck’s son, Edward Hanlan Ten Eyck, would become the first American to win the Diamonds at Henley in 1897; the Henley Stewards’ did not invite him back the following year, due to the fact that his father had been a professional sculler.) Rowing historian Bill Miller has written an introduction to Fred Plaisted (seen down on the left) as the National Rowing Foundation has Plaisted’s scrapbook at Mystic Seaport Museum. George Hosmer (seen up on the left), John Teemer (seen up on the right), and James Riley (in The New York Times article mentioned yesterday spelled 'Reilly') are all in Bill Pickelhaupt’s eminent article “Professional Rowing in the United States and Canada” in the magazine Maritime Life and Traditions, No. 17, winter 2002. Both Plaisted and Riley seemed to have been real characters.

Two books that have interesting information about professional oarsmen in America are Rowing (1923) by R.A. and R.J. Glendon and American Rowing (1932) by Robert Kelley; both books are not easy to find, but do try abebooks.com from time to time.

More On Courtney

Today, Chris Partridge at Rowing For Pleasure, has followed in my wake to also write about American professional sculler Charles E. Courtney. Chris mentions things from Courtney’s childhood that might interest you. Go to Chris's entry by clicking here.

The Boycott Of Charles Courtney

Some years back, I did a lot of research for an article about Charles E. Courtney (1849-1920; up on the left) and professional rowing in America. While there are quite a few books and articles about professional oarsmanship in North America, there are not that many books about Courtney, which surprised me. After all, he was the most famous and successful sculler on the south side of the Canadian border; of course, Ned Hanlan (1855-1908; up on the right) of Toronto being the most famous sculler north of the Canadian border, and probably in the world when he was World Sculling Champion in 1880 to 1884. My article, “Charles Courtney and the Decline of Professional Sculling in America”, which was published in The Log of Mystic Seaport, Vol. 56, No. 1, 2005, is, as the title suggests, also about the deterioration of American professional sculling.

Courtney and Hanlan met three times to row for the American champion title and to collect a heap of money doing so. Never had there been so much publicity before a rowing race as when Courtney and Hanlan met on 3 October 1878, a five-mile race which the Canadian won, but not with the same ease as he had beaten other opponents. A re-match was eventually set for 16 October 1879. On the morning of the race, Courtney found his racing shell sawed in half. The race was however not postponed, and as Courtney refused to race in a borrowed shell, Hanlan rowed the five-mile course on his own, but found out after the race when he went to collect his prize money, $6,000, that the president of the Hop Bitters Company, which bottled the patented medicine “The Invalid’s Friend and Hope”, and who had set up the prize money, had already left town with the money, claiming that one man in a shell does not make a rowing race. And it was probably here it started, the beginning of the end of professional sculling in the US. Had Hanlan had some of his men to saw Courtney’s shell in half, or was it Courtney or one of his men who had damaged his boat? We will never know.

On 19 May, 1880, the two North Americans met for their third race, again for a wager of $6,000. A few minutes into the race, Hanlan was far ahead. Halfway to the turning stake, Courtney stopped, and rowed back to his dock. The Canadian continued to row the full course and claimed the prize money. Six months later, Hanlan easily beat the World Champion Ned Trickett of Australia on the Thames in London.

Books on Charles Courtney, Margaret Look’s Courtney: Master Oarsman – Champion Coach (1989) and C.V.P. Yong’s Courtney and Cornell Rowing (1923), only briefly talk about Courtney’s career as a professional oarsman after the American's last race against the Canadian. Instead, at length the authors write about Courtney’s successful career as a coach at Cornell University which began in 1883, but was only for ten days. Two years later, Courtney was hired to coach the Cornell Navy’s crews full time.

Very little seems to be known about Courtney’s rowing career between 1880 and 1885. The other day, on the web, I happened to find a little article in The New York Times from July 1884 about a challenge that Charles Courtney sent to another well-known professional sculler at this time, Wallace Ross (on the left). Courtney asked Ross to put up $1,000 against the same amount of Courtney’s money for a five-mile race on Seneca Lake on 16 August. According to the article, published on 13 July, 1884, Ross turned down Courtney’s challenge as he, Ross, had signed an agreement with other American professional oarsmen “never to row with him again.” The newspaper actually published the whole agreement. It reads,

“In view of the public career of Charles E. Courtney for several years past, and particularly because he has done so much to disgrace professional sculling, we, the undersigned, in order to protect ourselves and encourage square, manly rowing hereby pledge ourselves with said Courtney, either by rowing with or against him, at regattas or elsewhere – Wallace Ross, Fred A. Plaisted, George H. Hosmer, Albert Hamm, George Gaisel, George W. Lee, H. Peterson, James A. Ten Eyck, John Teemer, and James H. Reilly.”

This is the first time I read or heard about this agreement between the professionals to boycott Charles Courtney. I know that he was a man of controversy, also as a coach for Cornell (see my entry on 5 December, 2009: ‘Americans at Henley in 1895’), but I am astonished by this article. Is there anyone who can explain what happened that led to this boycott of Courtney?

A 'New' Rowing Magazine

In an attempt to save money some national rowing federations ceased publishing their magazines, or turned them into electronic magazines or newsletters. It is therefore refreshing to hear that the French Rowing Federation is going (or maybe rowing) against the flood to revitalize its publication, or in the words of Hélène Rémond, “revolutionized its publication”. In an e-mail Hélène writes that the Fédération Française des Sociétés d’Aviron, FFSA, has decided to create a magazine that is more attractive and better “suit the lovers of the sport.” She continues “The magazine’s previous title was Aviron and has now been changed into Ramer” - both words mean ‘rowing’ (with 'ramer' being the verb, and 'aviron' being the name of the sport). The magazine, which now has a larger format and is printed on recycled paper, went from 44 pages up to 64 pages with more photographs, interviews, reports, etc. Earlier it was a bimonthly magazine which has now changed to quarterly. Hélène also mentions that in the first issue there is an article about Leander Club.

Hélène wonders if other printed rowing magazines like the ones published in the USA, Great Britain, and Sweden are all published quarterly, too? Well, the Swedish Svensk Rodd is published quarterly, while the American Rowing News (formerly Independent Rowing News, which obviously is not published by USRowing) is a bi-weekly magazine, and British Rowing’s Rowing & Regatta is published ten times a year.

I wish Ramer good luck, and thank you, Hélène for sharing these interesting news.

Oxford At War

Besides writing articles for some rowing magazines and trying to keep this blog running, the other month I began doing research for a non-rowing related project about my favourite Swedish author, Frans G Bengtsson, and his wonderful two-volume novel The Long Ships (1941; 1945; Eng. ed. 1954), and its English translator, Michael Meyer.

In October 1939, Meyer went up to Oxford to read English at Christ Church. He simply picked Oxford because his nanny had cheered on Oxford in the annual Boat Race.

Meyer would become a well-known translator of August Strindberg’s and Henrik Ibsen’s works, but at Oxford he had his mind set to become a poet. He sent off a poem to the university’s literary magazine, Cherwell. He soon got a reply from the magazine’s editor, Keith Douglas (to the left), that his little piece was accepted for publication. Douglas, who was a dashing-looking fellow, quickly made Meyer a sub-editor for Cherwell. Meyer agreed to this, although he sometimes found Douglas a difficult person. But there was no question about Douglas’s ability to write poems.

After Keith Douglas left Oxford in the summer of 1940, he immediately joined the Army, and handed over the editorship of Cherwell to Meyer. A year later, when Michael Meyer and his friend and fellow poet, Sidney Keyes, edited and published Eight Oxford Poets, some of Keith Douglas’s poems were included. Among them, Meyer especially liked ‘Canoe’ as, Meyer would later write, it “perfectly captures the atmosphere of Oxford around the time France fell” (in June, 1940).

And, yes I know, a canoe is not a rowing boat, but I would like to publish it here:

Well, I am thinking this must be my last
summer, but cannot lose even a part
of pleasure in the old-fashioned art
of idleness. I cannot stand aghast

at whatever doom hovers in the background
while grass and buildings and the somnolent river
who know they are allowed to last for ever
exchange between them the whole subdued sound

of this hot time. What sudden fearful fate
can deter my shade wandering next year
from a return? Whistle, and I will hear
and come another evening, when this boat

travels with you alone towards Iffley:
as you lie looking up for thunder again,
this cool touch does not betoken rain;
it is my spirit that kisses your mouth lightly.

Douglas’s battle experience during the North African Campaign, from 1942 to 1943, was posthumously published in 1946, Alamein to Zem Zem, which was a prose account with poems and his own drawings. Captain Keith Douglas was killed on 9 June 1944 in France, three days after he had participated in the invasion of Normandy.

Hugh R. Riviere's 'In The Golden Days'

In Thursday’s entry, ‘Oarsmen Who Gave Their Lives’, Tim Koch mentions the magnificent painting, ‘In The Golden Days’ by Hugh R. Riviere (1869-1956). About this painting (see above), The Art Journal, volume 62 (1900) wrote: “If only for the freshness of subject, the freshness of observation, Mr. Hugh Riviere’s ‘In The Golden Days’ […] is welcome. The play of sunlight on the faces of the Magdalen eight, being coached on the Upper Thames, the sense of movement, a further claim to attention.”

It is through Tim that an image of ‘In The Golden Days’ has reached me so I could post it here. The painting belongs to Thames RC and in an e-mail Mr. James Elder, the Honorary Secretary of Thames RC, explains that “that prints of the painting in various sizes should shortly be available via Bridgeman On Demand. Prints of 'The Start at Henley' are already available from the same site [click here to go to the site] They also have a few of our more interesting photos (e.g. Jack Beresford, Rupert Guinness, George Vize, some 1870s Henley crews and interwar Olympic crews). Their naming of these is a bit wrong as yet (they've only just been uploaded) so some are a bit tricky to find but this should improve in the coming weeks.”

In the same e-mail to Tim, Mr. Elder has also attached a photograph (see above) of the War Memorial which Tim mentioned in the Thursday entry. Among other things, Mr. Elder writes, “You can also see the left hand plaque ’Dulce et decorum est’ in place.” He also mentions that the furniture and replaced plaques should be back very shortly due to the renovations made now when Thames RC is celebrating its first 150 years.

’Dulce et decorum est’ is from the Roman poet Horace’s Ode, which begins,

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori:

mors et fugacem persequitur virum

nec parcit inbellis iuventae

poplitibus timidove tergo.

(How sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country:

Death pursues the man who flees,

Spares not the hamstrings or cowardly backs

Of battle-shy youths.)

’Dulce et decorum est’ is also the title of a war poem by the famous Wilfred Owen (1893-1918). He was killed at the Battle of the Sambre, just a week before the war ended. His poem, which shows the horror of war, was published in 1920.

If you are interested in war poetry, please go to Professor Tim Kendall's eminent blog War Poetry.

Tim also sent me a link to a list of the 42 Blues killed during the First World War, in 1914-1918. Click on the link and scroll down the page and there you will find a link to the 270 Henley competitors killed in that war. Last year, I posted a long article - in two entries - about one famous oarsman on these lists, F.S. Kelly, who was killed in 1916. Click here to read these entries.

My warmest thanks to Tim Koch and James Elder for their great contributions to this entry, and a special thank you to Thames RC for allowing me to post ‘In The Golden Days’ on my blog!

I Have To Inform You...

In yesterday’s entry, Tim Koch of Auriol Kensington RC wrote about War memorials at some British rowing clubs. He ended his piece with the War Memorials they have at his club. Here Tim continues,

Kensington also has what I think may be a unique memorial. It is a bound album with studio photographs of the seventy five of its members who served in the First War, fifteen of whom died. The picture of Colin Mills, who was killed in 1916, is made especially poignant by the letter that we have that was sent from his sergeant to his mother explaining ‘that he could not possibly felt any pain’.

The letter reads:

FRANCE
12th February 1916

Dear Madam,

It is with extreme sorrow that I have to inform you that your son, and our dear friend, Colin was killed yesterday in the trenches at Loos.

Corporal Hughes and I were standing with him discussing a discovery he had made in connection with our work, when he was hit by a bullet in the head. The parapet was rather low and he must have been slightly exposed to the German lines. He received immediate attention from our stretch bearers who were at hand and everything possible was done for him. Afterwards he was taken down to our dressing station, which I had notified, and the R.A.M.C. were waiting with the ambulance which at once took him to the Hospital, all, however, was of no avail, and he died shortly after without regaining consciousness. Our Medical Officer assured me that he could not possibly have felt any pain.

I cannot express the grief felt by all of us who knew him so well, for never have we known one of such a good nature and loveable character. When he joined us in October he immediately became popular and always remained so. In his work with the Company and later, as an observer and sharp shooter he has always been one of my most reliable men. His sad loss has left an absolute gap in our circle and our affections.

We all desire to express our deep regret and sympathy with you in your sad loss.

Yours very sincerely,

George C. Eager, 692
Sgt. Bgde Observer

My warmest thanks to Tim for two very intresting and touching entries!

Oarsmen Who Gave Their Lives

The good Tim Koch of Auriol Kensington RC has sent me some e-mails about my entry The Carefree Boys (Saturday, 15 May 2010). Tim writes,

Your piece on 'The Carefree Boys', oarsmen who were killed in the 1914-1918 War, was very interesting. It is a topic that I have been thinking about for some time following research that I have done on my great-grandfather who was killed off Jutland in 1916 in the only great sea battle of The First World War. I think that many of us who have never served in the military are both fascinated and repulsed by the idea of exposing ourselves to danger. In the words of the eighteenth century man of letters, Dr Johnson:

“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier [...] were Socrates and Charles the Twelfth of Sweden both present in any company, and Socrates to say, 'Follow me, and hear a lecture on philosophy;' and Charles, laying his hand on his sword, to say, 'Follow me, and dethrone the Czar;' a man would be ashamed to follow Socrates. Sir, the impression is universal; yet it is strange”.

All wars are tragic but the carnage of the 1914-1918 War, 'The Great War', is especially poignant. In Britain in August 1914, oarsmen would have been the first to volunteer for the war that was to 'be over by Christmas'. They were young, fit and subject to the peer pressure of the crew and club. Men from the same street, workplace, college or sports club joined up in groups and were put in the same battalions. In Auriol Kensington we have a picture of the Kensington eight that won at Molesey Regatta in 1914. Four years later, four of them were dead. Three of the Auriol RC Henley Thames Cup crew of 1914 were killed.

I would think that about half of the British rowing clubs that I have visited have memorials to members killed in two World Wars. The most magnificent is in Thames RC in Putney, London. It is a very large oil on canvas painting showing an eight rowing firm, followed by a coach on horseback and two of their club mates. It is entitled 'In The Golden Days' and was painted by Hugh G Riviere. The reflection of the glass makes it difficult to photograph but the image is reproduced in greetings cards and a calendar obtainable from Thames RC, sold in aid of their 150th Anniversary rebuilding fund. (To see the image and read more about the calendar and the greeting cards, please click here.)

Auriol RC and Kensington RC amalgamated in 1981 and so have separate War Memorials. Auriol has a richly illuminated scroll which was altered to add the names of those who fell in the Second World War (see above at the very top on the right). Kensington has two brass plaques, one for each of the conflicts (see above on the left).

Tim will continue on this interesting topic in an entry which will be posted tomorrow!