In stark contrast to last Saturday's Bridge to Bridge blue ribbon clear blue sky the Radford Mile was contested in the wettest of weathers. From the handicap clock start at 7.30 a.m. to the very last swimmer home and on to the speech and cup presentation the downpour did not abate.
Members of the Serpentine Swimming Club did not complain and just got on with it (note - fact check pending).
Brighton's loss was a Serpentine win for Chris
Chris was due to swim the Brighton Pier to Pier with his son Oliver. The weather forced the event to be cancelled, which meant Chris was able to race at the Serpentine. Quite a consolation prize for Chris. (photo: Vanessa Marshall)
Greeted by heavy skys
(photo: Rob Fisher)
A very wet start to the race
Our 8 o'clock wardens - true heroes
Tony and Christine Radford were unable join us to watch the race on Saturday. They hope to attend before the end of the summer to present the prizes.
They were missed, though I don't think they missed the weather.
1986 presentation, Tony and Christine with mum and dad Betty and Alf and daughters Victoria and Gemma
Tony Radford joined the club in 1963, aged 11. He was club champion at 16, an honour he repeated well into the 1970s
A championship shield in those days.
For many years Tony was club champion, being of national competition standard and one of the club's fastest ever swimmers. Though a member of the Serpentine SC his pool training and competing was under the banner of South London SC, coached by his father Alf. Tony regularly competed in the ASA Southern Counties championships, his favoured events being 220 yards and one mile (still imperial distances in those days). One July day in the early 1970s Tony swam our Bridge to Bridge race in the morning and then was driven by dad Alf to Brighton for the Pier-to-Pier race a few hours later, which he promptly won.
Tony's wife Christine was also a very good competitive swimmer: that's how they met. Tony may have been faster, but it is said Christine was definitely the more graceful.
Tony and Christine moved to West Sussex some decades ago, meaning it was difficult to regualry attend Saturday morning races.
Tony won the Christmas Day race in 1967 and 1972, producing a sub 60 seconds time for the latter win. Quite an achievement in the sub 4c (39f) strength sapping waters of the Serpentine. This has only ever been equalled by Nick Adams, some thirty years later.
No photo of Tony with the 1967 Peter Pan cup. But here he is just after the presentation, steading Louis Fabre on a vintage, front pedal bicycle.
Lucy Harris awaiting her mark (photo: Vanessa Marshall)
Dave Bill ready for the off (photo: Rob Fisher)
Watching the swimmers flow - three circuits complete, last quarter to go.
First finishers. Race over, time to stand in the rain and chat.
Wet and smiling; Mike, Robin and Thanos count them in. (photo: Ian MacEachern)
More wet chat (photo: Ian MacEachern)
With the rain unrelenting the presentation was held in front of the cafe
President Laure was still in New York following her round Manhattan Island swim. Immediate past president Rob Oulcott stood in (photo: James Norton)
Second place for Charlie Frith (photo: James Norton)
Henry Fischel-Bok 3rd (photo: James Norton)
Andrew Wilson 4th (photo: James Norton)
Victoria Rock 5th (photo: James Norton)
Ilyan Kovatchev, fashion icon, trendsetter and best dressed man about town.
Or is that his version of a tin-foil helmet to protect him from "the others and their dastardly conspiracies"? (photo: James Norton)
Chris said it was his first cup success in five years
We said, that's blown your Christmas Day chances for at least half a decade (photo: Vanessa Marshall)
Club records record Colin Cooper as joining the club in 1913. Colin served with the Royal Flying Corps during WW1, holding the rank of Major.
Our club fixture card for 1928 records the Colin Cooper cup being swum for over four races - 55 Yards in May, 110 yards in July, 220 yards in August, and 55 yards in September. The 1927 fixture card is missing, but the races do not appear on the 1926 card. So the series was either over the two years 1927 & 1928 (not unheard of - the Telegraph series used to be nine races over three years) or just 1928. The cup was kept in the possession of the 1928 winner and half a century later was donated back to the club and was, from 1978, presented to the winner of the Radford Mile race.
Major Colin Cooper’s younger brother, Captain Jack Oliver Cooper, also served in the RFC and at the tender age of 20 was killed in action while carrying out a bombing raid on Epéhy Station, France on 21st July 1916. There is a plaque dedicated to Colin’s younger brother (by four years) on the wall of the Lido pavilion.
1929 cup presentation by Colin Cooper, but not the Colin Cooper cup used today.
It was the 'public spirited' George Lansbury, Mayor of Poplar, leader of the Labour party and popular Commissioner of Works between the wars who, in 1929, first suggested a public bathing space in Hyde Park. Funds were raised by a public appeal for the development of the Lido bathing area and pavilion. A private offer was also made on the strict understanding that it was entirely anonymous "and no one except Mr Lansbury shall know of my identity". The donation permitted the completion of the pavilion and, in the spring of 1930, the Lido was completed, replacing the old bathing huts with the ornate Serpentine Pavilion. A plaque in commemoration of Lansbury is built into the wall of the pavilion, with the inscription "who made this bathing shore for our enjoyment".
Though George Lansbury respected the donor's desire for anonymity, over the years it became accepted that it was Major Colin Cooper, RFC, who made the generous and greatly appreciated donation towards the development of the facility where he bathed before the war and to ensure there would be a permanent physical memory to his young brother, Jack.
Captain Jack Cooper RFC (1896 - 1916), younger brother of Colin Cooper
(picture source: London Remembers website).
The plaque on the Lido Pavilion wall reads, “In proud memory of Captain J.O.Cooper age 20 years who was killed in action whilst serving in the R.F.C” with a verse written by John Drinkwater:
Time would have brought him in her patient ways,
So his young life spoke to prosperous days,
To fullness of authority and praise,
He would not wait so long, a boy to spend,
His boys dear life for England, be content,
No honour of age had been more excellent.
(Report compiled by Brian Thomas. Images provided by Brian and the club's archives, unless credited to individuals)