Greg Denieffe: Jack Beresford – In His Own Words, Part 3

Here is the third, and last, of Greg Denieffe’s installments about Jack Beresford:

In September 1964, World Sports, the official magazine of the British Olympic Association, published an article ‘How I Won Gold’. In the article, four Olympic gold medallists from the past: Anita Lonsbrough, Harold Abrahams, Jack Beresford and Harry Mallin, recall their greatest triumph.

Jack Beresford had no hesitation in picking his victory in Berlin in 1936. Here is a transcript of the article for HTBS readers who might not have seen it before.

With Blades Almost Clashing

It was in 1920 that I had my first lesson of race technique – beaten by John B. Kelly of the United States by one second for the gold medal in the sculls. That final made me decide to prepare for 1924 and I got my first gold medal in Paris. Four years later I was captain of the British eight in Amsterdam and we won a silver medal behind the Americans. Then four of us in Thames Rowing Club got together for Henley, went to California for the 1932 Games and won gold in the coxwainless fours.

In 1935 Dick Southwood teamed up with me in a double-sculler – object Berlin, 1936. By that time we were both pretty tough and mature, with the confidence and will-to-win well ingrained in us. In those days there were no open double-sculling races in England, but with 10 months’ practice behind us and 2,000 miles in the boat plus daily early-morning running and exercises, we were strong and fit.

In our first race in Berlin we met five other countries, including the Germans, European record-holders. They were very fast off the mark and their tactics were to get ahead and then edge over and “line” us up, i.e. scull dead in front of us, giving us their wash. They succeeded in doing that the first time and the other four countries were so much behind that the single umpire in the launch wasn’t able to control the course of the two leaders. At the finish we had to ease up or we would have bumped them and damaged our boat. So we just smiled and made no comment after the race.

Next came the repêchage heat, which we won very easily and so got back into the final. By then we had the “Indian sign” well and truly on those Germans, at least so we reckoned, and it worked out that way. In that final, beside Britain, were Germany, Poland, France, USA and Australia. We were determined to stay with those Germans but even at halfway (1,000m) they led by 1½ lengths, with the other countries out of the hunt.

At that point we challenged for the lead and went on doing so until they “blew up”. We literally gained foot-by-foot for the next 800m until at the 1,800m mark we were dead level. And so we raced to the 1,900m mark with blades almost clashing, for they had tried the old game of trying to line us (up) but not again! Right in front of Hitler’s box the Germans cracked and we went on to win by 2½ lengths.

The air was electric, for until we broke the spell Germany had won five finals off the reel. Yes, the last win in the doubles was the greatest and the sweetest, for we had come out to Berlin without a race and beaten the world.

JACK BERESFORD

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:

Heavy Boys?

Laurie

Two weeks ago, HTBS received a question from ‘David’ who writes: ‘I’m doing a bit of research and wondered if you know or could take an educated guess at the heights (and if possible rowing weights) of the following rowers: Jack Wilson, Ran Laurie, Dickie Barney, Bert Bushnell, Hugh ‘Jumbo’ Edwards, Jack Beresford, and Dick Southwood ~ Many thanks, David’

I started to flip through pages in my rowing books, while Tim Koch began looking in The Times archive’s Henley Royal Regatta (HRR) reports. Weights are easy to find in the HRR programmes Tim writes, ‘but heights are more difficult. One way to find out these oarsmen’s heights is to try to find their military records which record such things’.

Here is what Tim found when it comes to the rowers’ weights (in stones and pounds / pounds / kilograms):

D.J. ‘Jack’ Wilson (Henley Royal Regatta 1934): 12.11 / 179 / 81.2

W.G.M. ‘Ran’ Laurie (HRR 1934): 13.4 / 186 / 84.4

B.H.T. ‘Bert’ Bushnell: 10.8 / 148 lbs / 67  Height: 5'10" / 178

 H.R.A. ‘Jumbo’ Edwards (HRR 1932): 13.7 / 189 / 85.7

 Jack Beresford Jnr (HRR 1939): 11.9 / 163 / 74

 L.F. ‘Dick’ Southwood (HRR 1934) 12.10 / 178 / 80.7

Tim and I have to confess we are not sure who ‘Dickie’ Barney was, so if David, or someone else could inform us, we would be grateful. Thank you!

Greg Denieffe: ‘Hitler Oaks’

Jack Beresford and Dick Southwood: Olympic Champions in the double sculls, Berlin 1936.

Yesterday’s HTBS post, which mentioned rowing legend Jack Beresford, reminded HTBS’s Greg Denieffe about a story. Greg writes,

They were possibly the oddest sporting prizes ever awarded. Along with gold medals, the champions of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin were each presented with an oak sapling by Adolf Hitler.

Many of the 130 oaks disappeared without trace, but others were dispersed around the world and planted in the athletes’ home towns so that they would grow into mighty oaks. Among them was the tree won by Jack Beresford, which he donated to Bedford School. He had been a pupil at Bedford from 1913 to 1917. The sapling was planted in the School grounds and was known as the ‘Hitler Oak’.

Many years later when Bedford School was having some building work carried out, the tree had to be removed. The timber was put to good use, and Dean Abraham, a friend of mine and ex-captain of Milton Keynes Rowing Club, showed me the result in November 2009 which I photographed.

Dean Abraham and his partner in the pairs, D. Pinkney, won the silver medal at the 1989 National Schools Regatta and were subsequently selected to represent England in junior pairs at the Home International Regatta between Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales. The regatta was held on 29 July 1989 and England won the junior pairs in a time of 7.22.28.

Bedford School Presentation Plaque photographed 2 November 2009.

The School made a presentation to the crew to mark their achievements that year and the plaque presented was made with the timber of the ‘Hitler Oak’. The crests are of Bedford School (L) and of the England rowing team (R). The inscription “Home International Champions of Great Britain” is misleading as Ireland is also involved. Each country takes it in turns to host the event which was first held in 1962.

Dean Abraham with his ‘Hitler Oak’ plaque.

The crest of the Home International Ties: from top anti-clockwise: Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales.