The Boat Club was contacted by someone from Ellesmere College who sent over some photos of an alumnus, E A Wilson, including a crew photo of the 1925 Fitzwilliam House May boat.
The blazers in the photo have diagonal stripes rather than the later vertical stripes we are familiar with. All you want to know about blazers is here:
Boat Club Blazers – Billygoats Society
The post-war record book in my possession contains reports from the Captains up until 1982, including crew lists and results. There are some gaps where nothing is written and some pages have been removed. The pre-war book often contains minutes of meetings rather than a Captain’s report and that is the case for 1924-25.
The records reveal that the Boat Club was in some flux in 1924-25. F. B. Priest (2 in the photo) had been Captain of the Boat Club in the previous year, and was re-elected for 1924-25 when the elected Captain resigned at the first meeting of the year and nominated Priest for the vacancy. G. W. Mantell (6) was Secretary and F. H. Garner ( stroke) was Treasurer – both also elected after the incumbents resigned.
Matters under discussion at Michaelmas meetings included a subscription to pay for repair of the “funny” (I don’t know what this was – maybe a tub or bank tub – can anyone shed some light?), and extensive discussion of uniforms and colours (“due cleanliness of uniform to be judged by the Captain”!). “The Captain declared that training for the Trial Eights Races would begin on Nov 17th and the Secretary made the necessary arrangements for the daily morning walk.” The Trial Eights Race was won by A crew by 3 lengths – maybe they walked quicker or longer each morning- and 23 members attended the Boat Club Dinner.
The last meeting of the Michaelmas term had decreed that members should return on the first day of Full Term so that Lent practice could begin early – what we now call a pre-Lent training camp. No Lent results are recorded, however, though it is noted that after an accident between FH 2nd Lent boat and JCBC 4th boat, following the advice of the coaches, FHBC accepted responsibility for the damage and authorised JCBC to send the bill to FHBC. An undated meeting (we do know it was held in the library at 7pm) revealed the “going down” of the Captain Priest and the election of Mantell. The only Easter term meeting was for the election of officers for 1925-26, and no results were recorded, though the photograph shows that FH bumped Kings 2 and Clare 2.
Other sources reveal that in the 1925 Lents in Division 3 Fitzwilliam were bumped by Caius 3, rowed over, bumped Pembroke 4, and bumped 1st trinity 4 to end 4th in Division 3. In the 1925 Mays, starting 4th in Division 3 (by coincidence, this was long after the Lents and Mays were split), FH rowed over, bumped Kings 2, rowed over, bumped Clare 2, to end 2nd in Division 3.