Entrants for Billy Butlins 1956 cross-channel race

Black and White photograph. Entrants for the 1956 Butlin’s International Cross -Channel Swimming Race.

Starting from the left hand corner and going down the photograph, they are as follows. 1/ Jack McClelland (32) Belfast. 2/Jack Cloutier (24) Canada. 3/Dogan Sahin (25) Turkey. 4/ Ronald Tarr (19) London. 5/ Clarence Conza (33) New Zealand. 6/ Ian Tirrell (33) South Africa. 7/ Erik Martin (53) Sweden. 8/ Jenny James (28). Wales. 9/ Maria Meesters (17) Holland. 10/ Baptista Pereira (35) Portugal. 11/ Margaret Sweeney (26) New Zealand. 12/ Greta Anderson (29) Denmark. 13/ Elizabeth Wild (22) New Zealand. 14/ Florence Burdett (27) America. 15/ Diana Cleverley (22) New Zealand. 16/ Brenda Fisher (28) Grimsby. 17/ Thomas Park (32) California. 18/ Harold Bracewell (47) Blackpool. 19/ Edward (Ned) Barnie (59) Scotland. 20 Arthur Rizzo (28) Malta. 21/ Mohammed El Soussi (28) Syria. 22/ Fredrick Oldman (40) Huddersfield. 23/ Mihir Zen (27) India. 24/ Alfredos Camarero (25) Argentine.

Other race entrants not in the photograph include. Toufic Bleik (25) Lebanon.– Kurt Feilen (30) Germany. John Healey (29) Ireland.– Edna Borenstein (19) Israel.

Sir Billy Butlin banned Egyptian swimmers from competing. The Original number of swimmers dropped to 22 competitors. Fourteen Pilots turned back without attempting to land. There was an opinion that the race should not have been started under the prevailng weather conditions, which were forecast in the earlier bullitens. Eight swimmers started but none were successful.

From the Sam Rockett collection.