Stout for Sportsmen

Tim Koch writes:

Today, 17 March, is St. Patrick’s Day and many people, Sons of Erin or not, will mark this solemn religious occasion by drinking industrial quantities of Irish stout, most famously that produced by the ‘Guinness’ company. In the past, HTBS has produced several items noting rowing connections to the ‘black beer’ produced by the Dublin brewing family.

A summery of the rowing career of the company chairman, Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh (1874-1967) was in this post of August 2010. Guinness won the Diamonds in 1895 and the Diamonds and the Wingfields in 1896.

Possibly due to the influence of Rupert, the company often included rowing in its frequently acclaimed advertising campaigns. In March 2010, Hélène Rémond shared some nice images she had found, and Greg Denieffe posted these in September 2013.

I recently came across another of the brewer’s advertisements with a rowing (or rather sculling) content, but this time in the form of a traditional celebrity endorsement rather than the clever graphics and slogans for which the company is most famous. On 6 July 1929 the ad posted below was run in the Illustrated London News.

Bert Barry’s Guinness endorsement (click to enlarge).

The text starts:

One man beats three. This is a unique feat in the history of rowing. H.A. Barry sculled over four miles: his opponents each raced only a third of the distance. Yet such was the strength and endurance of Barry that he beat each opponent in turn. In his letter on this page, Barry shows how sportsmen of every kind can improve their strength and endurance by drinking Guinness regularly.

In his endorsement Barry explains:

And there is no doubt that ‘Guinness Stout’ has done me a lot of good these last four years. It has built my muscles up wonderfully and has given me the necessary stamina – what I lacked before to stay a long distance at racing pace.

It is signed, H.A. (Bert) Barry, World and British Champion Sculler.

Advertising alcohol as a training aid for sportsmen may seem strange but this was a very different time. The 1912 Olympic sculling champion, Wally Kinnear, recommended Guinness and Champaign (‘Black Velvet’) as a remedy for over training. The old professionals would sometimes have a brandy and port on the start line as it ‘settled the stomach’. Much worse than associating alcohol with athletic success was the common idea of using sportsmen in cigarette advertising. ‘Camel’ cigarettes were especially famous for this – as this ad in Popular Mechanics of June 1935 shows.

Camels – ‘The mild cigarette the athletes smoke’. They include William Garfield ‘Bill’ Miller who came second in the coxless fours at the 1928 Olympics and second to Bobby Pearce in the single sculls in the 1932 Olympics. He was also U.S. Singles Champion, in 1930-1933. If he did actually smoke it is not surprising that a contemporary newspaper described him as ‘The husky Philadelphian’. The museum Mystic Seaport’s website describes another Bill Miller / Camel advertisement held by them though unfortunately there is no illustration. The handsome Miller was a natural choice for advertisers and, more harmlessly, he also endorsed Palmolive Shaving Cream.

Returning to Guinness, the advertisement does not make it absolutely clear but the ‘relay’ was a race from Putney to Mortlake with Barry sculling constantly over the whole distance but with a fresh opponent taking over from the previous challenger for every third of the course. Thus the race started conventionally but at Harrods a new sculler picked up the race with Barry while the original opposition to the Champion dropped out. There would be another change with a third sculler, perhaps around Chiswick Steps. I do not know if this stunt was done with the Guinness endorsement in mind or if it was something that the company picked up on after the event. However, thanks to the remarkable British Pathe website, we can see film of this possibly unique event.

RIVER RELAY RACE

Bert Barry

Herbert Arthur ‘Bert’ Barry (1902-1978) was the son of W.A. ‘Bill’ Barry (who won Doggetts in 1891 and was Professional Sculling Champion of England in 1898). Bert was a nephew of the great Ernest Barry and uncle of William L. ‘Bill’ Barry. Bert won Doggetts in 1925, and in 1927 he challenged the World Professional Sculling Champion, M.L. Goodsell, for his title. Strangely, the race took place in Vancouver, Canada, and not in Goodsell’s native Australia. The defending champion beat Barry convincingly. However, on a return match over the same course three months later, it was the Englishman who was victorious and he remained the unchallenged World Champion for nearly three years. Pathe has an especially good sound film of Bert sculling with his brother Lou around this period.

BERT BARRY

Bert with the statue of the great sculler Ned Hanlan in Toronto in 1934.

In May 1930, Bert lost the World title in his first defence to Ted Phelps, the first time in over fifty years that two Englishmen had contested for the World Sculling Championship. Bert also failed in the return match five months later. Perhaps he was not drinking enough Guinness?

Tradesmen's RC Goes For The Olympics

TRADESMEN ASK OLYMPIC TRIAL

(Click on the picture above to start the film.)

Of course, with the Olympic Games coming up in London next year, the media is reflecting on different aspects of the Games held there in 1948 (but not so much on the 1908 Games, also held in London). At the 1948 Olympic rowing in Henley, Great Britain was represented in the eights by Cambridge, who had won The Boat Race that year. The Cambridge crew took an Olympic silver medal.

Rarely, are sport historians interested in things that never happened, or, in the case of rowing historians, races that were never held. However, the HTBS readers might find the news reel above interesting as it shows an attempted by the Thames Tradesmen's Rowing Club to represent Britain in the eights at the Olympic rowing in 1948. Anyone interested in professional rowing, famous World Champion sculler, Bert Barry, who was their coach, appears in the film for a couple of seconds.

The 'Last Hurrah'

Regarding my entry on 17 March, the always alert Tim Koch in London has sent me an e-mail with some thoughts about Ernest Barry, Bert Barry, and the World Professional Sculling Championship. Tim writes,

“The wonderful photograph of Ernest Barry (1882-1968) arriving at Putney in July 1913 to race Harry Pearce of Australia for the Sculling Championship of the World tells us a lot about professional sculling at that time. Firstly, Barry needed a police escort through the crowds because the sport had such a popular following. Before 1914 the ‘Big Five’ sports in Britain were soccer, rugby, cricket, boxing and rowing. It must be admitted that much of the interest may have been due to the betting that took place. Sadly this race was almost the ‘last hurrah’ of professional sculling as it never fully recovered its former mass appeal following the 1914-1918 War.”

Tim continues, “Secondly, Barry is clearly very well dressed and a bit of a ‘swell’ as they would say at the time. The classic way for a working class lad to make big money quickly (and spend it on ‘bling’) was, and probably is, to do well in sport or show business. What does the £500 prize money translate as today? According to the Nation Archives website, its spending worth would be £21,530 ($33,046) now. MeasuringWorth.com takes a different comparison, that of average earnings, and says that earning £500 then is equal to receiving £189,000 ($290,000) now.”

The next race for Barry was against another Australian, Jim Paddon, also on the Championship course between Putney and Mortlake, on 7 September 1914. Barry won at 21 min. 28 sec. The next person to challenge Barry for the title was Alf Felton of Australia (seen on the right), on 27 October 1919. About this race, Tim notes down “There is nice film on British Pathé of Barry racing Felton at Putney in October 1919. At twenty seconds into the film we see the two walk out, Felton wrapped in a mackintosh but Barry in white shoes, flannels and ascot with cap and blazer. Clearly he is a bit of a showman. There is an interesting shot two minutes into the film which shows an eight following one of the scullers in the race, but the bowman is not rowing and is facing the wrong way. He is (quite legally) coaching and steering the competitor. Fenton won.”

WORLD'S SCULLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Parts of the Felton - Barry rematch on the Parramatta River in Australia on 31 August 1920, which Barry won, can be viewed on the following newsreel:

BARRY WINS WORLD SCLLING CHAMPIONSHIP

Tim continues, “The £2,000 that Barry needed for travel and stake-money was raised very quickly by public subscription, such was the interest. Those interested in history always like the idea of continuity so it is pleasing to note that Ernest’s nephew, Bert, was World Champion 1927-1930 and that a Barry continues to be at the forefront of modern sculling. Ernest’s great-nephew, Bill, won Silver in the Coxless Four at the 1964 Olympics and won the Wingfield Sculls 1963-1966. Today he coaches British Olympic sculler, Alan Campbell.”

Great stuff, Tim. Thank you!

A Smiling World Champion

Let us continue with the Barrys. Here is a magnificent photograph of Ernest Barry’s nephew, Bert Barry. For sure this picture was taken before a race and not after, as Bert is smiling and looking relaxed, and his hair is neatly combed. He became the world professional sculling champion on 6 December 1927 in Vancouver by beating Major L. Goodsell of Australia. Bert lost the title on 31 May, 1930, being overpowered by his countryman, Ted Phelps, on the Champion course on the Thames. I am afraid I do not know when the photograph above was taken.

Ted and Eric Phelps: Two Professional Sculling Brothers

In my entry of June 1, I briefly mentioned Eric Phelps (to the left). Here is a little more about him and his famous brother, Ted Phelps (to the right, wearing his Thomas Doggett’s coat with the badge).

Of course, telling any story about the Phelps brothers, one should begin with their father, J. T. “Bossie” Phelps, who according to Hylton Cleaver, was the “last great professional coach, certainly so far as tideway rowing is concerned…”. Although, it seems Bossie Phelps was a magnificent rowing coach, he did not have any champion sculling title himself to back it up with; not that he actually needed one. He passed on his skills to his two sons, Ted, born in 1908, and Eric, born in 1912.

When Bossie died at the age of 64, during the Second World War, he had seen both his sons become sculling champions. At the age of 18, Ted won the Newcastle Handicap, which at the time was the prime professional race in Northern England. Two years later, in 1928, Ted went to South America for a coaching job in Montevideo, but returned to London in 1930 to challenge Ernest Barry’s nephew, Bert Barry, for the World Sculling Championship title. Ted won the title, and three months later he entered the Thomas Doggett’s Coat and Badge Race, which is the oldest rowing race in the world, instigated by the Irish comedy actor Thomas Doggett, and sculled for the first time in 1715 on the Thames. Ted Phelps did not have a difficult time winning this race. Normally, of course, winning Doggett’s coat and badge was a good start of your professional rowing career, where the height might have been to crown it with the world title. Here Ted did it in the reverse order, which was rare.

Ted retained the world title against Bert Barry (seen on the left) later that year, and also kept it successfully against Major Goodsell of Australia in 1932. One year later, Ted lost the title to the Australian Bobby Pearce, who was living in Canada. In 1935, Ted Phelps raced against Bert Barry for the British Championship between Putney and Mortlake on the Thames. Ted won, but lost the title the next year to Bert’s brother, Lou Barry.

As Bossie had forbidden Ted and Eric to race each other for a champion title, Eric, who had won the Thomas Doggett’s Coat and Badge Race in 1933, took the opportunity to challenge Lou Barry for the British title later in 1936. Eric was triumphant and beat Lou for the title. Half a year later they met for a return match, and again Eric came out on top. In 1935, Eric Phelps went to Germany to become a private coach to Georg von Opel. When the war broke out, he was interned. After the war had ended, Eric worked in Argentina as a coach for three years, between 1947 and 1950.

Back in London, in 1950, a race between Eric Phelps and Eric Lupton (a Thomas Doggett Coat and Badge winner in 1947 for the postponed 1940 race) was set up in Frankfurt, Germany for a European Championship. Phelps won the title this time, but later lost it to Lupton, who became the last European Professional Champion.