Harling Magic wins 2017 Annual Christmas Day handicap for the Peter Pan trophy

Huge congratulations to Leanne Harling who won the 2017 Annual handicap race for the Peter Pan trophy. Leanne was certainly roared to victory by her husband Hutan, and baby Percy – in his own way. Leanne flew home first, ahead of the ever-young Stu Bowman, Peter Larrad and Emmi Hunte.

Asked afterwards how she felt in the cold waters, Leanne thought she "would never never land at the finish." 

And nearly a century after the extremely generous author Mr JM Barrie donated all his royalties from Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital, for life, we can all surely feel satisfied that the format of the race remains unadjusted. GOSH Indeed!  

The “Peter Pan” race has only been raced since the early 1900s, yet the Serpentine Swimming Club has been running a Christmas Day time-handicapped swimming race since at least 1864.

In 1929, Barrie gifted the complete rights of his Peter Pan publication to GOSH, this has been a source of significant income since then.

Peter was the name of one of Barrie’s adopted five sons, and Pan is the Greek god of nature and shepherds. The Serpentine link stemmed from the volume of time Barrie spent walking his dog Porthos in Kensington Gardens. 

Barrie was just five feet tall (1.5 metres), and was one of ten siblings who grew up in Scotland. And thanks to the success of the play preceding it, the Peter Pan book was a best seller. Barrie wrote over 80 novels.

For those in need of a sprinkle of memory refreshment dust, Peter Pan was a heroic character contained within Barrie's book for adults, "The Little White Bird" which was published in November 1902. That little white bird was iteratively eclipsed when the play Peter Pan was premiered at London's the Duke of York Theatre on Tuesday 27 December 1904. 

In 1911, Peter Pan and Wendy, the novel was published. 

In 1903, Barrie presented a gold medal worth five guineas (about £600 in today's money) to the race winner. Barrie continued to present the Peter Pan Cup up to 1932, after which the honour fell to long-term club member Albert Greenbury. Albert joined the club with his brothers in 1908.  He was club President from 1935 to 1955.  To this day the Greenbury family continue to present the cup. The pleasant link contuinues as Lucy Greenbury swam in the 2017 race, and Simon Greenbury kindly presented the prizes. Thanks to Lachlan for piping the swimmers onto the boards, and Santa who was present. 

Barrie passed away on 19 June 1937 (born 9 May 1860), and his copyright naturally expired in 1987. Then Prime Minister, Lord Callaghan, successfully proposed amending the Copyright Designs and Patents Act, which gave GOSH the unique royalty rights from stage performances and any other multi media adaptation of Peter Pan.
This copyright was extended to 2007 in Europe, and Spain until 2017. The UK rights are in perpetuity. In the US, copyright remains until 2023. 

Yours swimmingly

John Tierney

[photos, Ingrid & Jeremy Hunter]

[thanks to all helpers including Ros who provided a much needed cup of chair (see photo)]

List of winners of the Christmas Day handicap race over 100 yards