Ivy Hawke, Ishak Helmi, Hilda Harding. After a training swim

A CHANNEL SWIMMING TRIO AT CAPE GRIS NEZ . Picture shows- Left to right, Miss Ivy Hawke (England), Ishak Helmi (Egypt) and Miss Hilda Harding (of Brighton) three of the Channel aspirants now at Cap-Gris-Nez, coming out of the water after a training spin. They each hope that soon the water will be warmer so that they can make their cross channel attempt.

Ivy Hawke successfuly swam the channel in a time of 19hrs 16mins. She had 3 unsuccessful attempts; 1922 France-England 4hrs.30mins.  1927 France-England 7hrs. 1929 England-France 16hrs. Ivy Hawke has won the 15 miles Championship of the Surrey Ladies Swimming Club, for the last 3yrs.

Ishak Helmi was the first Egyptian to swim the English Channel. He made one successful swim, on the 31 Aug 1928. Time 23 hrs 40 mins. It was the slowest France /England swim on record until 1949 when Phillip Mickman’s time was 23hrs 48mins. He was unsuccessful on five attempts; 5th Sept 1924, F/E 8hrs 30mins. 14 Sept 1925 F/E 14hrs 05. 8 Aug 1926 F/E 10hrs 00mins. 27 Aug 1926 F/E 3hrs. 7 Aug 1927 F/E  8hrs 15mins. 27 Aug 1929 E/F 7hrs 17mins. Helmi swam 18hrs in the Seine.

Hilda Harding. Unsuccessful attempt 30 August 1927, when she swam just over 10 and a half miles from Cap Gris-Nez, time 6hrs 5mins. She was taken from the water unconscious.  She went on to swim Morecambe Bay in 1928 in 3hrs.17mins. Her trainer was Jabez Wolffe.