History of Rowing Victoria Inc

1: Rowing in a young Victoria 1838-1859
2: Formation of the Association 1860-1875
3: Growth of the Sport 1876-1889
4: Years of great success 1890-1899
5: The rise of Henley on the Yarra 1900-1909
6: The War Years 1910-1919
7: Women's rowing and the modern era 1920-1929
8: The Depression years 1930-1939
9: War and rebuilding 1940-1949
10: Expansion years 1950-1959
11: The search for international success 1960-1969
12: Combining the Associations and lightweight success 1970-1979
13: The new national program 1980-1989
14: Golden years 1990-1999
15: Professionalism 2000-2009
16: Yet More Growth 2010-2019
17: Challenging Times 2020-2026
Appendices
1: Life Membership and other important awards
2: Patrons and Presidents
3: Office Bearers
4: Clubs and their histories
5: The Oarsmen's Centotaph and WWI Roll of Honour
6: WWII Roll of Honour
7: Premierships
8: State Championships
9: Hall of Fame Inductees
10: Victorian Olympians
11: International representation
12: Intercolonial and Interstate Racing
13: School rowing
14: University rowing
15: Histories of Victorian Rowing
16: Annual Reports

Appendix 10. Victorian Olympians

The Olympic Gamessection of this website contains full details of the Victorian members of our Olympic rowing teams. The following contains links to these pages and provides a summary.

Whilst no Australia representation at this regatta, several Australians participated in UK crews. One of them was G Eric Fairbairn who competed in the Men's Pair and won a silver medal. Fairbairn was born in Melbourne and was a nephew of Stephen Fairbairn. He was studying at Cambridge University at the time and raced that year in the Boat Race. Stephen Cooper in his book ‘The Final Whistle: the Great War in Fifteen Players’ provides a chapter on Fairbairn. Regrettably, Eric Fairbairn died in action in World War I on 21 June 1915 at the age of 27.

1912 Stockholm

This was Australia's first official representative crew, albeit only from NSW and Victoria. The Victorians in this team were:

Men's Eight

Simon Fraser
Harry Ross-Soden

C S Cunningham was a selector and travelling manager for the team. He does not appear to have been an official member of the team.

The silver medal winning New College eight from Great Britain contained Charles Littlejohn, a Victorian studying at Oxford.

1920 Antwerp

Whilst there was no Australian representation at these Games, as with other previous Games of this era, an Australian raced in the British team. At these Games it was Victorian John Campbell who raced in the silver medal winning English eight.

1924 Paris

No Victorian representation.

1928 Amsterdam

No Victorian representation

1932 Los Angeles

There were two Victorian rowers racing at these Games, but under the British flag.

Lewis Luxton stroked the British eight. He was studying at Cambridge at the time. Luxton later succeeded his father Sir Harold Luxton as an IOC member in Australia and served on the AOF Executive Committee for many years. It was Luxton's casting vote on the AOF that enabled Australia to compete at the Moscow Games.

Lewis Luxton's father Sir Harold Luxton, is credited with building up the AOF reserves enormously with his fundraising, thus leaving the AOF in a strong financially stable position. Jointly with Hugh Weir he is credited with winning the Melbourne bid for the 1956 Olympic Games when Melbourne defeated Buenos Aires by one vote. Sir Harold Luxton stepped down from the Organising Committee and Lewis Luxton, as Deputy Chairman, undertook a great deal of the work for the successful 1956 Games. He was awarded a CBE for his services to the Olympic movement.

The other rower was W A T (Bill) Sambell who rowed four in the British crew. Both Luxton and Sambell had rowed together at Melbourne Grammar before going straight to Pembroke College at Cambridge as under graduates. Lewis Luxton was the first Australian to stroke a Cambridge crew. The Cambridge crew raced as Leander at Henley Royal Regatta winning the Grand Challenge Cup. The crew was then selected to represent Britain at these Games. At these Games, and also at the 1908 and 1912 Games, Australians were regarded as part of the British Empire and so qualified for British crews.

1936 Berlin

No Victorian representation

1948 London

Men's coxed four

Jack W Webster
Colin D Smith
Hugh T Lambie
Walter J Lambert
Tom Darcey
Coach : W Ray Todd

1952 Helsinki

No Victorian representation

1956 Melbourne

Men's Coxed Pair

Robert B Duncan
Bruce D Dickson
John Cockbill

Men's Coxed Four

Gordon C Cowey
Kevin J A McMahon
Reg Libbis
Ian Allen
John E Jenkinson

Men's Eight

Michael H Aikman
David H Boykett
James G Howden
Garth O V Manton
W Neville Howell
Adrian C Monger
Brian J Doyle
H Neil Hewitt
Coach: Robert R Aitken
Reserves: C Brian Dawes & John F Morganti

1960 Rome

Men's Coxless Pair

John A Hunt
Terrence R Davies

Men's Coxed Pair

Paul M Guest
W Neville Howell
Ian D Johnston

Men's Coxless Four

Brian Vear
Peter J Guest
Peter L Gillon
J M (Kim) Jelbart

1964 Tokyo

Men's Single Scull

Peter Edwards

Men's Coxed Pair

Neil Lodding
Bruce Richardson
Wayne Gammon

Men's Coxless Four

Anthony Walker
Richard J Garrard
Simon H Newcombe
Peter L Gillon
Coach: Keith A Bilney

Men's Eight

Brian Vear
David Boykett
Robert Lachal
David Ramage
Paul Guest
Graeme McCall
Martin Tomanovits
Terry Davies
Kevin Wickham
Coach: Alan Jacobsen
Reserve: Charles Lehman

Manager: Alec McLeish