THE JUNE SAMPSON FEATURE.

Kingston Ladies Swimming Club is 100 years old this week. As a birthday tribute, let's look back at the beginnings of the oldest swimming group in the Royal borough.

Swimming was the buzzword in Kingston a century ago. The town's first on-shore swimming baths opened in Wood Street in October, 1897, and soon more than 1,000 people a week were enjoying their first experience of indoor bathing (previously they had only had the chill open-air waters of the Thames).

It was specially good news for women. For most of the 19th century, the fair sex in Kingston faced social disgrace if they swam in the river, as men did. Even when an improvised "floating bath" was provided in the Thames from 1882 until it fell apart in 1894, women were allowed in only a few hours a week. Mixed bathing was strictly forbidden - as it was until well into the 20th century.

Kingston Ladies Swimming Club was launched on May 4, 1898, with 24 founder members. Its first event was an "entertainment", held at the corporation baths in October in front of an all-female audience of 50.

At first it was decreed that competitors should race in long dresses. Mercifully for them, this idea was dropped and they presumably wore the uniform club swimsuit instead. This was a knee-length garment in brown serge, with frilled sleeves, high neck, and shoulder flounces edged with gold braid.

Events included diving, handicap and novice races and a sunshade race, using Japanese sunshades "not less than two feet across." The baths superintendent and swimming instructor, Mr O'Rourke, gave an exhibition of "fancy swimming". His wife, described as the "lady superintendent", was given a silver inkstand as thanks for her services to the club.

Members competed for the club captaincy with a two-length race, won by a Miss Taylor. Not until 1902 were captains picked by election.

The annual entertainment went from strength to strength. In 1901 (when competitors had to wear stockings because husbands and fathers would be present!) there were handicap, obstacle and swimming-on-the back races, a coracle in comic costume race, and another swimming display by Mr O'Rourke.

The fifth entertainment, in 1905, had Mr O'Rourke diving from the roof in flames after a "fancy and trick swimming display" by Miss Eva Johnson.

In 1910, the club daringly suggested mixed bathing. This was turned down by the Baths Committee, which instead increased the Wednesday evening ladies' sessions by an hour to 10pm.

The club's first outstanding swimmer was Ethel Littlewood. In 1905, aged 22, she made a record nine-mile swim from Hampton Court Bridge to Richmond Railway Bridge in 5 hours, a feat recorded in the national and Continental press.

Next year, Ethel set up an 11-hour record for swimming the 16 miles between Sunbury and Richmond locks, beating seven male competitors.

Mr O'Rourke observed: "One reason girls are better than boys and men in the water is that they are more attentive to their instructor.....another is that they have more floating power than men."

Another early star was Violet Morgan, the club's first winner of the Southern Counties ASA Girls 100 yards freestyle championship in 1910.

Throughout the 1920s and 30s, diving and races on the Thames were a key part of club activities. The club's leading swimmer at this time was Olive Bartle. In 1927, at the age of 14, she won the club's Thames mile race as a junior in 26 minutes 48 seconds. Between 1929 and 1931 she won this race three times as a senior.

In 1929 she broke the Southern Counties 100 yards record, was Surrey county champion, and had several successes representing the Kingston club at London galas.

In 1934 she was picked to swim for England in the 100 yards event at the Empire Games in the new Empire Pool, and also represented Britain in the European Games in Germany.

The following year she won the women's 220 yards national championship, the Surrey 100 yards championship and the Southern Counties 220 yards championship.

Kingston's Wood Street baths, intended to serve for at least a century, proved inadequate in less than a quarter of that time. So in 1923 it was proposed to build an "open air swimming station" on a former mill site beside the Hogsmill River in Denmark Road. There was nine years of argument before the baths materialised, and when they did it was as the Coronation Baths, a covered building with two pools.

Kingston Ladies Swimming Club was thrilled by the new facilities, and for the first time appointed a professional coach named Hawkins.

Betty Richardson was a club star at this time, keeping goal in major polo matches played in natural outdoor pools, with water temperatures averaging 60 degrees fahrenheit.

During the war Kingston Ladies was the only club to keep going. Subs were reduced to a minimum, and membership was opened to evacuees, service personnel and members of non-functioning clubs.

River races had to be abandoned in 1939. They were revived in 1943, but ceased altogether in 1949.

After the war, the club gained national renown, particularly for its Rhythmic Swimming Team, which functioned between 1945 and 1959. Membership rose from 200 in 1948, its golden jubilee, to 400 in the mid-1950s.

Rhythmic swimming, or water ballet, was a spectacular exercise, and the club's repertoire included Parade Of The Toy Soldiers in red tunics and pill box hats, the Banana Boat Song in jeans and turbans, and a tableau to the music of Swan Lake. As the Radio Times reported: "You soon see why stamina and timing are so vital. The arms are frequently thrown in ballet-like poses out of the water so that the whole weight of the body is borne by the legs."

Sadly, the Rhythmic Swimming Team had to be disbanded in 1959 through lack of training time and swimmers of sufficient calibre. But the club continued to notch up a plethora of successes in other directions, and its great names of the 50s included Anne Marshall and Jaqueline Dyson, British and international champions.

In 1972 Kingston's four main swimming clubs - Kingston Ladies, New Kingston (men and boys), Surrey Ladies and Lagoon (mixed) - combined to form a borough swimming Association. There was talk of Kingston Ladies merging with New Kingston but the club decided to retain its own identity, and New Kingston merged with Surrey Ladies to become Kingston Royals in 1980.

The Coronation Baths closed in 1980, when Kingston Ladies had around 150 members. Competitive members were incorporated into the Barracuda Club at Morden Pool, while Kingston Ladies continued as a teaching club at Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton and Banstead Pool.

When Kingston's Kingfisher Pool finally opened, Kingston Ladies thought it unsuitable for competitive swimming, so did not ask for water time.

In 1986 president Sylvia Ward suggested that, as a new pool was soon to open in the Malden Centre, the group should specialise in synchronised swimming. But it had to wait two years for pool time before re-opening as a synchronised swimming club in May, 1989.

Today Kingston Ladies meets at the Malden Centre on Saturday mornings and at Lady Eleanor Holles School on Monday nights. It holds annual club championships and spectacular Christmas shows, as well as competing in synchronised swimming competitions around the country. Stars of the 1990s have included Sharon Taperell, Hannah Green, Louise Parker and Hannah Sutton.

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