The Maurice Ferris cup, sponsored by Mike and Sally Olizar

Richard Maurice Ferris joined the club in 1926.  He won the 1938 Christmas Day race and the 1966 Bridge to Bridge.  Maurice was club President 1968-71.  He was always affectionately known as being part of the "Harrow Mob", along with Alan Titmuss, Teddy Bennion, Arthur Goffrey, and Jack Baker (Alan Titmuss’s uncle).  Before retirement Maurice worked at the Heinz factory in Harlesden and provided a plentiful supply of "unwanted" dented tins of food to Alan Titmuss.  Alan always joked that though this was greatly appreciated, the tins did not have any labels.  He and Paulette would never know whether they were opening baked beans, pilchards, peaches or treacle pudding!

Mike became a member in 1967, aged 20.  Though Mike won the1981 Peter Pan cup, he has never won a Christmas morning race!  The lake was frozen that day, so the race was held the following February.  Mike has the honour of being one of the club's youngest Presidents (perhaps the youngest?).  He had just turned 42 when elected at the1989 AGM.  Mike's professional career was in Highways Engineering.  He spent many years at the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham where, amongst other things, he was responsible for crowd safety at the annual Oxford v Cambridge boat race.  For many years Mike has acted as the club's Archivist/Historian and is a font of historical knowledge regarding past club members and Hyde Park itself.

Mike joined the club in 1967, aged 20.  Working in Victoria he would have an early evening summer swim in the Lido on the way home.  It was the Lido Superintendent and club member Jock Fee that encouraged Mike to join the club and swim all year round.

Mike was born in Aberdeen to a Polish father and Scottish mother.  Mike writes:  "When in September 1939 Poland was partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union several thousand Poles managed to escape via still neutral Roumania and Hungary to make their way to France where a Polish Government in Exile was forming and Polish forces formed to continue the fight.  In June 1940 France surrendered to Germany these Poles escaped again. Picked up from the coasts of France (long after Dunkirk ) by units of the Royal Navy and merchant marine and Polish ships some 30,000 Poles, my father amongst them, made it to Britain, the last bastion of freedom. The Polish Government in Exile now based itself in London.

"Most of the rescued soldiers would be sent to form the defence of a long section of the east coast of Scotland against a potential German incursion. This is where my father was stationed in late 1940. He would be one of some 3,000 Polish soldiers who married Scots girls. As a result, I was born in Aberdeen."

At the Serpentine Mike found himself in the company of quite a few fellow Poles still living in exile.

For more background on the Ferris cup, Mike Olizar and the club's strong Polish connections please follow this link to the 2021 "race we missed" report -  Serpentine Swimming Club