1940 – 1956 #

The second outbreak of ‘furor Teutonicus’ did not put a complete stop to undergraduate life. A handful of men were in residence and the PBC fared well during the war. For those six years the London School of Economics, rowing under its own colours, was the Club’s guest. If there was any racing between Michaelmas 1939 and Lent 1941 no record of it has been preserved. Thereafter racing was on three days each in March and June eights, as they were officially called; so in May 1941 first boat colours were once again awarded. In Michaelmas of 1941 there was a tolerable membership of twenty¬ four, and two eights went out twice a week. Fines were to be strictly enforced and the sum to go to a Spitfire fund; later the recipient of this largesse was Addenbrooke’s Hospital. The membership increased over the years, but in Michaelmas 1944 it dropped to a dozen. In the March eights of 1943 there were three divisions of forty-seven crews; our first boat went up four places and into the first division: oars were awarded to some of the crew. The following year J. Heyman, now a Fellow and Professor of Engineering was Captain. The coach in these successful years was D. Baker, Chief Clerk of the College, who was a member of the Cambridge Town Rowing Club; in 1945 he was made an honorary member of the PBC. In the Lent term of 1945, although the Club’s membership stood at only nineteen, there were two eights on the river none the less.

During the war bottle parties were the regular form of celebration, but a Bump supper was held in 1943 and the frugal menu is worth record: purée de légumes, carré d’agneau, pommes rôties, choux braisé au jus, tarte aux pommes à la crème and fromage à 1’anglaise with coffee. No wine is mentioned.

In the Michaelmas term of 1945 the membership stood at twenty-seven, of whom four had matriculated before or during the war but had interrupted their course to serve under arms. Training was re-introduced before the bumps in 1946, and the cox was instructed to inspect his men at 10:15 to be sure they were abed. During the Long Vacation residence some men on the PBC rowed in the Town bumps - often disorganised but agreeable - under the colours of the CTRC. It is to our credit to record that for the past few years the PBC, with a little outside help, has regularly rowed in these races, and it maintains an honourable position in the middle of the second of three divisions.

In the Michaelmas term of 1946, when there were twenty-nine members, the CUBC restricted outings to four a week, but the limit returned to six in the May term. For the next couple of years the entertainment after the Club suppers at term end was made up of recitations of poetry and music. Training and exercise were matter for debate: morning walks were adopted, dropped, and re-adopted for a good number of years; other sports, like tennis, were recommended, taken up and then discouraged.

The Michaelmas term of 1948 marks the beginning of the rise which reached its unimagined peak in 1956. The bumping races of 1949 are not perhaps encouraging, but the officers had ‘carded’ every freshman, and so membership was sufficient to allow four crews to enter the Fairbairn Cup race of 1948. In the following Lent term was held the first race against our sister college in Oxford, Merton. This friendly encounter, alternately on Isis and on Cam, was fairly regular until of late. Another friendly fixture that began about this time was with King’s College, London; the reason for the connection between the clubs is nowhere given, and no race is recorded after 1968. Also during this period it was customary to race Selwyn over the Fairbairn course a week before the Cup race itself; the loser bought the winner beer. Prices never cease to be interesting: the supper in June 1949 cost 7/6, but with wine and tips it came to 15/-; in Michaelmas of 1971 £2 was reckoned dear, but the cost is now about £7.

On May 10 1949 ‘Hugo de Balsham’ was launched, the first new boat in ten years, after delivery of a Latin oration; in the Michaelmas term of 1955 she had made thirty bumps in fifty races, and been bumped only once, but her best was yet to come. ‘John Cosin’ was launched in the Lent term of 1955, after a less polished Latin oration. In January 1959 came ‘Lord Kelvin’, and on May 25 1969 ‘Tom Askwith’; this fine shell is sixty feet long instead of fifty-six, and of shallow draught to help her through the Gut: a true Cam boat. The latest shell was launched on November 30 1975 and appropriately named after Ernie Lingwood, our boatman for 41 years.

In the May term of 1949 the PBC were given a cup for pair-oared races by Mr Mew, a Jesus man who had coached the Club for some years. Crews once again took to competing at Marlow and Henley.

The Michaelmas term of that year saw a stiffening of effort, and a concentration on success in the Fairbairn Cup race: no-one was to enter CUBC trials and college fours were abandoned. Starting twenty-first, the first boat finished ninth; the PBC entered four crews, a sign of healthy membership. At the Putney Head race of 1950 the first boat won the clinker pennant and entered the first division there.

The Michaelmas term of 1950 was similar to the previous one, but the crew moved to sixth in the Fairbairn; training was strict and outings long. By Lent of 1951 the regimen was more exacting: Sunday runs were instituted, and physical training in the mornings. That term a Henley appeal fund was launched to realise £300 for the purchase of a shell and the payment of the expenses of the visit, reckoned at £200; the appeal was a success but the shell seems not to have been bought. Relief from this picture of determination is provided by the bold crew (whose nickname will not sully this page) that visited Lyons in the summer of 1951; the bulk of their visit was passed in eating and sightseeing. They were awarded medals for a race they ‘won’ against plainly inferior competition.

In Michaelmas of 1951 the first boat moved to third place in the Fairbairn Cup. In the Lent term of 1952 Peterhouse were fourth at the Reading Head, and eleventh at Putney. In the May term the fourth boat was awarded oars on the strength of a bump and an overbump (i.e., a rise of four places), and so supper could be held in Hall. The first boat in the Lents of 1953 is noteworthy, for it alone in the first division rose four places, and nothing so clearly illustrates the impetus of the Club in these six years. In the Michaelmas term of 1953 coxes were urged to be decorous in their supervision of crews in training (one member suggests all should train on brandy). Cinemas were put out of bounds in the Lent term of 1954 as unhealthy, and in the May term, though the first boat failed to stay in the first division, the second, fourth and fifth boats won their oars. And in the Lents of 1955 the first boat was fourth in the first division.

In the Michaelmas term of 1955 there were some discouraging tokens: the Cam had been drained, for a start, so tubbing had to be done on the upper river, the Granta, which was convenient, but rowing down by Clayhythe, which was not. Furthermore, there was apathy in the ‘Amal.’ club, which grew unwilling to bear the PBC’s expenses. Despite all this the oarsmen trained without remission. They won the CUBC clinker fours race against LMBC; and for the first, and so far only, time Peterhouse won the Fairbairn Cup, a full seven seconds ahead of the holders and founders, Jesus. The Captain, B. W. Oxley, enjoined upon the crew secrecy concerning outings and training. In the Lent term he defused anxiety by establishing as the crew’s goal a secure place in the first division of the Mays. That achieved, senior oarsmen would be released from rowing in the Lent bumps, since at that time no-one who had rowed in the first division of the Mays was eligible to row in that division of the Lents (a rule abolished in 1966, rather to the detriment of small clubs). In the 1956 Lents the eight rowed over on the first day. On the second they bumped 1st and 3rd Trinity at Ditton corner, but there was no acknowledgment; the issue was left in no doubt when the refractory cox of that crew was hoiked from his seat by the Glasshouses. The cox of LMBC, on the third day, had learnt the lesson and conceded at Ditton before the bump was fairly made. The fourth day saw Jesus bumped and Peterhouse Head of the River. The crew, from the bow, were: D.G. Harper, E.A. Jackson, R. van Hoeken, C.W. Gear, A.M. Smith, B.W. Oxley, M.H. Bartlett, T.G. Hewlett (stroke), and C.E. Phelps (cox); their coach was D.B.C. Taylor, Fellow and Tutor, an Irish Olympic oarsman whose enthusiasm and inspired coaching are regularly praised in the minutes, until he removed to New Zealand where he is now the Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University. The bump supper, the awarded oars and rudder (including their decoration), were gifts of the College to the men. The burning of a boat on Coe Fen was much assisted by the Dean, who was seen at the fen-gate of the Fen Court handing out doors for burning to parties visiting from other colleges.

The May races of 1956 were also successful, and the Captain’s policy realised: the first boat stood at twelfth in the first division. The PBC of course won the Michell Cup. A crew went on to Henley to be coached by Tom Askwith for the Ladies’ Plate. In the final heat they were pitted against another outsider, Magdalene College, who lost by only a third of a length; much credit is due to the cox, D.M.F. Bright, who anticipated a gust of wind and steered into it, while the rival crew crossed the course lanes in it. It should be noted that there were no rowing Blues or even ‘Trial Caps’ in the College at this time. At Henley there was some re-arrangement in the bow: P.C.J. Metcalf replaced Gear and rowed at 2.

In the Michaelmas term of 1956 the membership is recorded as standing at twenty-eight, but only seven freshmen joined the Club. And up to 1964 the supply of new blood was too thin to allow our hard won position to be maintained. Bartlett won the Colquhoun sculls and went on to row in the winning Blue boat of 1957, for which van Hoeken was spare man; Smith won a Trials Cap.

Of durable importance was the foundation of the PBC Trust Fund, a sug¬gestion of N.A. Kaye (Captain in 1933). The restiveness in the ‘Amal.’ Club was a simple warning. Rowing is expensive, and there are times when the undergraduate body as a whole bridles at the drain it makes upon income. Of course, if the boat club’s membership includes, say, a quarter of resident Petreans - and membership at the moment stands at 47 - then attacks are easily fended off. But when membership is low (as it often has been in the past twenty years) then the necessity of a reserve fund is self-evident. Quite apart from attacks upon expenditure, there is the matter of equipment. As the Roman poet Lucretius said ‘there have been many improvements made recently in ships’, and he could have added that they cost money. Carbon or tungsten is now used to build boats and oars; the mechanism of the rigger is always being refined; slides and stretchers admit of endless variation; rudders have disappeared from sight. Also the costs of transport and insur¬ance, of lodging crews, and even of entry fees do not stand still. Many former members therefore see an annually covenanted gift to the Fund as an assur¬ance that future Petreans will be able to enjoy, as they did, all the advantages of a secure society with the best of modern equipment. In short, the Fund guarantees that in another hundred years this story will be continued.