David Miln Smith, Lynda McGill's team 1967

David Smith was on the boat for Linda McGill swim as part of her team. 6 October 1967.

On the back, hand written in blue ink it says: “Dear Mrs Martin Your confidence, conviction and excitement of life rubs off on the people who pass thru the portals of Hubert House. Undoubtedly this is a great aid to the swimmers who attempt the Channel. Whether you’re staying at the Moramomica (?) Hotel in Marakeem – a beach in Australia – or the little house in back of Dover and know you’ll have the best of life. Happiness. David Mila (?) Smith 27 August 67”.

Smith was the first man to swim from Africa to Europe across the Strait of Gibraltar, which he did twice, first in 1966, and again in 1967. He made a name for himself in the 1960s and 1970s with a series of extreme and international multi-sports events, such as “Everyman’s Olympics” and the “Peace Pentathlon.” The latter got him on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1970, where he was dubbed “Super Hippie.” Throughout the next few decades, he wrote books on yoga and health, and was the recurrent guest adventurer on television shows such as Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. Johnny Carson said, “He travels around the world doing all the things you want to do.” The Today Show called him “the King of the Risk Takers”.

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