A quiet chat. Channel swimmer Wolffe with crew in channel. Brickett in boat

A quiet chat. Channel swimmer Wolffe with crew in channel. Brickett in boat

Walter Brickett in support boat

Jacob Jabez Wolffe (1876 – 1943), son of a Glasgow watchmaker, made 21 unsuccessful attempts to swim the Channel from 18 July 1906 to 15 July 1914.

He made three attempts in 1906. Two in 1907. Four in 1908. Two in 1909. 2 in 1910. Two in 1911. Two in 1912. One in 1913 and one in 1914. The first World War then put a stop to his attempts.

He swam a double Solent in June 1914. After the War he trained Gertrude Ederle on her unsuccessful attempt in 1925. He then trained three successful Ladies; Hilda Sharp, Aug 1928. Peggy Duncan Sept 1930, and Sunny Lowry Aug 1933.

He married Florence Adeline Hurwitz at London in 1898

He moved to Brighton to operate as a swimming trainer, the home town of his own trainer Billy Kellingly. Billy soon afterwards moved to Deal in Kent and in the early 1930s, in the middle of training Sunny Lowry, the Wolffes moved to Margate. With the outbreak of war in 1939 he moved back to Hove where he died in 1943

Brickett, Walter Septimus (1865 – 1933), Professional Swimming Trainer. A renowned sportsman in his own right, for running and boxing as well as swimming, Brickett became a professional trainer after being an amateur competitor.

Born in St. Pancras, London, in 1865, the son of a grocer, Brickett originally worked for a pianoforte maker. He ran a number of swimming clubs in the London area and marketed himself as a Professor of Swimming. He trained Jabez Wolffe for a number of his swims 1906 &? 1907 and then became the British Olympic Team swimming coach for the 1908 London Games and 1912 Stockholm Games (where one of his pupils, Belle White, won Bronze in the High Dive). He was also coach for the ABA boxing championships.

He trained a number of swimmers including other Channel failures such as Lily Smith (GB) in 1913, Clarabelle Barratt (USA) in 1926 and Connie Gilhead (GB) in 1929.

He was a 65-year-old widower when he began training Ethel Mitchell, a 36 year old from Havant, and he made her his 2nd wife in 1931. He retired in 1932, moving down to Havant from St. Pancras, but died unexpectedly in 1933, aged 67.

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