The History of Beckenham Swimming Club

Beckenham Swimming Club was founded in 1893 and in 1977 joined with Beckenham Ladies to form what is currently known as Beckenham Swimming Club.

Beckenham Swimming Club has a head coach, who along with several of our younger swimmers is on the British Swimming World Class Programme. Beckenham Swimming Club has a proud record of Olympic and International representatives, for example Duncan Goodhew, Zara Long and Margaret Hohmann to name a few.

Beckenham Swimming Club has swimmers who have had success in the Commonwealth Games, European Championships and Olympic Games. Beckenham Swimming Club has numerous champions at National and local levels.

Beckenham Swimming Club has a membership of around 400 members. Beckenham Swimming Club has a successful Water Polo Section that boasts a strong history of producing England and GB Internationals at all levels.

Beckenham Swimming Club has a thriving Masters Section for adults which boast achievements at National level.

The history of Beckenham Swimming Club by Prof. J. M. Cameron published in 1993 for the club's centenary year can be viewed on this webpage (below) where it is hoped readers will be inspired by the good that the club has achieved over its 100 year history and look forward to the future with confidence.

 

 

 

Past Olympic Swimmers

 

 

 

Men		Ladies
Romund GABRIELSEN	1936	Margaret Restrick (nee WELLINGTON)	1948
Ronald STEDMAN	1948	Judy Wilson (nee GEGAN)	1964
Christopher WALKDEN	1956/60	Linda Lillo (nee LUDGROVE)	1964
David DUNNE	1976	Diana Mantoura (nee HARRIS)	1968/72
Duncan GOODHEW	1976/80	Susan Donovan (nee RICHARDSON)	1972/76
Paul MARSHALL	1980	Helen Hall (nee BURNHAM)	1976
Peter EVANS (Australia)	1980/84	Susan BARNARD	1976
Iain CAMPBELL	1984	Margaret Hohmann (nee KELLY)	1976/80/88
Michael FIBBENS	1988	Zara LONG	1984/88
		Ellen GANDY	2008

 

Beckenham Swimming Club Internationalists

Romund GABRIELSEN	O	Margaret Restrick (nee WELLINGTON)	O
Ronald STEDMAN	O	Margaret BROOKE (nee TOMS)
John FOLDER	(OT)	Judy Wilson (nee GEGAN)	O/C/WR
Christopher WALKDEN	O/WR	Linda Lillo (nee LUDGROVE)	O/C/WR
Andrew F. WILSON	C	Diana Mantoura (nee HARRIS)	O/C/WR
A. Wilson Mills	(C)	Jill BARNES
Neil DEXTER	(O)/C	Gillian TREERS	C
Ian HICKS		Susan Donovan (nee RICHARDSON)	O/C
David DUNNE	O/C/W	Helen Hall (nee BURNHAM)	O/C/W
Peter EVANS	(OA)/C	Judith Sabine (nee LOWE)
Nigel CLARK		Susan BARNARD	O
Richard IREDALE	C	Christina LAM	C
Colin DALE		Rosanna LAM	C
Christopher AYLING	WP	Moira Rushton (nee BROWN)
Jeremy BIRMINGHAM	WP	Sally COOKSLEY
Graeme GIBSON		Margaret Hohmann (nee KELLY)	O/C
Duncan GOODHEW, MBE	O/C	Amanda Morgan (nee JAMES)	(O)/C
Paul SPARKES	(O)	Kate ARCHER	C
John MILLS	(O)/(C)	Anne DENNY (nee HEFFORD)
Andrew WOOD		Juliet ARCHER
Criag MORGAN		Nicola CAMPBELL (nee FIBBENS)	(O)/C
Spencer PRATT		Zara LONG	O/C
Philip OSBORN	C	Nina HERBERT	C
Paul MORRIS		Sarah GARRETT
Paul MARSHALL	O	Angela PENDRICH
Graeme SADLER		Lucy WILLIAMS (nee HILDER)	WP
Frank AUGUST		Nicola Herbert (nee HILDER)	WP
Iain CAMPBELL	O/C	Sheila HOLLINGSWORTH
Stephen WILLIS	C
Steve GWYNNE
David STACEY	(O)/C
Micheal FIBBENS	O/(C)
Murray BUSWELL	C

 

Key	WP - Water Polo	O - Olympian whilst with BSC/BLSC
	(O) - Olympian before/after BSC	OA - Australian Olympian
	(OT) - Czech Olympian before BSC	C - Commonwealth Games
	(C) - Commonwealth Games before/after BSC	S - Scotland
	W - Wales	WR - World Record

 

 

GB Youth/Junior Team Members

David MANNING		Beth TANTON
Nicholas CHAPMAN		Susan FIELD
Kim A. LONGLAND		Jane HARRISON
Phillip P. MANNING		Frances COULL
Mark SHELDON		Frances BURNHAM
Michael CLARK		Maria SPRING
Douglas GOLDER		Maureen CAMERON
Simon DRISCOLL		Donna DAWES
Neil GREYNER		Louise MAIDENS
Russell STAPLETON		Jackie ELLIOTT
Douglas GATLAND		Lisa GRAHAM
Alasdair GREEN		Elizabeth BURNS
Peter CHICK		Lynda WYATT
Philip MARTIN		Karen BRAZIER
Jamie WALKER		Jane NORTH
Terry WEXLER		Karen AXFORD
Lawrence DAVIDSON

 

Historic Documents for Beckenham Swimming Club

Thanks to K W Hollyoak for the following contribution to this section of the website.

• 1947 Season Beckenham Swimming Club Programme

• 1948 Season Beckenham Swimming Club Programme

• 1949 Season Beckenham Swimming Club Programme

• 1950 Season Beckenham Swimming Club Programme

If you do have any documents and photos relating to Beckenham Swimming Club please do send them in to be published on this website.

 

 

History of the Town of Beckenham

Beckenham is a town in the London Borough of Bromley, England. It is located 8.4 miles (13.5 km) south east of Charing Cross. It is referred to as Bacheham in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name appears to derive from Beohha's homestead (Beohhan + ham in Old English).[1] The River Beck was named after the town. The word Beck also means a stream in Middle English. Many attribute John Cator as being responsible for turning the village of Beckenham into a significant town in the late 1700s - a process that accelerated after his death in 1806 with the arrival of the railway from the 1830s.

The History of Beckenham and photographs of the town can be seen on the excellent Beckenham History Website. where you can stay awhile and enjoy many great pictures that reflect some of Beckenham's past.

 

History of Swimming

Swimming has been around since prehistoric times, the earliest recording of swimming dates back to Stone Age paintings from around 7,000 years ago. Written references date from 2000 BC. Some of the earliest references include the Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible, Beowulf, and other sagas. In 1538, Nikolaus Wynmann, a German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book, The Swimmer or A Dialogue on the Art of Swimming (Der Schwimmer oder ein Zwiegespräch über die Schwimmkunst). Competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using breaststroke. In 1873 John Arthur Trudgen introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native Americans. Due to a British disregard for splashing, Trudgen employed a scissor kick instead of the front crawl's flutter kick. Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens. In 1902 Richard Cavill introduced the front crawl to the Western world. In 1908, the world swimming association, Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), was formed. Butterfly was developed in the 1930s and was at first a variant of breaststroke, until it was accepted as a separate style in 1952.