The Bridge to Bridge 2025 - victory for Gary Duffield

The 'Bridge to Bridge' race of the 17th July 1926 was featured in the 'Evening News', the headline reading 'Grandfathers in Serpentine Race'. The paper reported "While Londoners were sleeping, 59 swimmers turned out, a record entry, to race in memory of the Serpentine swimmers who fell in the Great War.  White-haired grandfathers struggled pluckily with schoolboys.  Fred Houghton, the handicapper, started the men from the Knightsbridge end with 75-year-old Richard Ledger leading the swimmers, saying 'I wouldn't miss this great race for anything'.  The last man in was W H Melhuish, a bus driver and Club champion for the past fourteen years. At the half distance J.Hughes, a comparative stripling in his sixties, was ten yards ahead of his nearest rival, playwright Henry Devereaux, but it was T. Wiggins, a Kilburn chauffeur, who forged ahead near the finish, which he reached forty yards ahead of W Bayly and Sam Youlton. 'It was a fine race' the winner said, 'but a wound in my leg I got in Ypres began to trouble me near the finish."

The old Club President, Harry Richardson, presented the prizes. A wealthy man, whose generosity was legendary and nothing pleased him more than to present his friends in the club with beautiful prizes and expensive silverware.  After his race, he gave each swimmer to complete the course an attractive bronze commemorative medal with the Serpentine Bridge embossed on one side and the inscription "Who Fell in the War" on the reverse to commemorate all the Serpentine swimmers who had fallen in the Great War. Harry suffered acutely from chronic arthritis and swam in thick padded gloves to lessen the pain. In spite of this, he never complained and always remained one of the most cheerful of Club members. After his death, his widow continued to give twelve prizes to this race, specially dedicated to the fallen war veterans of the Club.

(the above information courtesy of Alan Titmuss, club Secretary 1964 - 2009)

From 1935 Mrs G Varley, widow of Gilbert Varley presented the prizes.  Gilbert was club President 1926 - 1933.  The Varley family continued to sponsor the race until club Handicapper Dave Milne donated the current cup in 1959.

Since 2003 Anthony and Jenny Cleaver have sponsored the race and provided the prizes.

On retirement Dave and Peggy moved to Eastboune on the south coast, but still made the annual trip to the Serpentine to present the Dave Milne cup.  Dave died in 2003, after which Sir Anthony and Jenny Cleaver took on sponsorship of the race.

Jenny joined the club in 1993.  Though she never raced, she certainly impressed with her serene and effortless glide through the water.  Her graceful secret ....  flippers.  Jenny's family have a long though  tenuous  association with the club stretching back at least to the 1930s.  Club member Bill Maggs, in whose memory we still race each March, was butler her grandmother.  For many years Jenny chaired Friends of Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens.

Anthony married Jenny in the late 1990s and joined the club "by instruction" -  he wasn't given a choice.  He very quickly fell in love with our club and lake.  Anthony is famous within the club for his exceptionally strong side stroke, much in the mould of Captain Matthew Webb, who in 1875 became the first person to successfully swim across the English Channel.  This skill served him well on 21 September 2010 when he was part of the "Serpentine Veterans" relay team.  The other team members were Matthew Morony, David Mackertich, Geoff Ransom, George Gselko, Robin Hunter, and Alan Mitchell.

For a report on the 2010 relay, follow this link:

https://serpentineswimmingclub.com/news/50075/another-channel-crossing-for-the-ssc

Sir Anthony has chaired many commercial and public bodies (IBM UK, EngineeringUK, UK Atomic Energy  Authority, Royal College of Music, to name but a few).   Born in Lambeth in 1938, Anthony was knighted in 1992.  We can thus claim him as our very own "local boy made good", even if he did hail originally from just south of the river!.