Serpentine Swimming Club

Victory for Ilyan Kovatchev

Another beautiful spring morning greeted us. Water 16c, air 15c. 400m in memory of a lovely Serpentine character and dear friend to those who swam with him.

Ron, winter 2015

Ron joined the Serpentine SC in 2002 and immediately gelled with fellow members

Ron was born on the 2nd October 1931 in the London Hospital, Whitechapel. The Bethnal Green Weight Lifting Club obituary described Ron as “a living link to the past". It went on to report that "he spent all of his life within a mile of where he was born. In 1944 he was bombed out of his uncle’s pub at Old Bethnal Green Road (his uncle being killed by the V1 "doodlebug" rocket). He then moved to a prefab in Ion Square (now Gardens) off Hackney Road and when new flats were built, he moved to Wellington Row where he spent the rest of his life.”

Ron’s lifelong passion was weightlifting, first visiting the Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club aged 16. Even in his 80s he would still be active in sports four times a week. Weights Tuesday and Thursday at the Bethnal Green club and swimming Wednesday and Saturday at the Serpentine.

Ron at twenty one

Ron had also done a bit of boxing in his time and for many years a member of the London Ex-Boxers Association (LEBA) . Ron spent many a happy hour chatting with anyone who shared the same passions. Foremost amongst those at the Serpentine was Gordon Brodie, who had boxed in his youth and in the Army. Gordon had appartently been in the same crowd as Ron at numerous wrestling and boxing matches attended in and around the East End (and The Royal Albert Hall) in the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Ron Whittam joined us in 2000, with the aim of swimming the Christmas Day race to quietly raise money for charity. Ron soon became a favourite of all he met at the lake and was quickly established as “part of the furniture”.

The “Ron the Con Power cup” was established on the fixture list in 2002, named with reference to the power lifting championships Ron was still entering well into what some might call "his dotage", but club members would describe as "his prime".

After Ron’s sad passing in March 2016 his close swimming friends Kirstie Neilson and Mary Olivari took on the honour of jointly sponsoring Ron’s race.