Photograph of Rosemary George entering the sea

Photograph of Rosemary George entering the sea

A photograph of Rosemary George entering the sea for a possible channel swim attempt. There also appears to be another person entering the water ahead of her who could also be attempting to swim the channel. Rosemary swam in the 1957 , 1958 & 59 Billy Butlin swims.

Rosemary George of Dover

Best British performance in Butlin’s Channel Swim 1957 – swam for 13 hrs 30 mins but the swim was unsuccessful.

Butlin’s Channel Swim 1958; swam for 10hrs 25 mins, unsuccessful.

 ”2004 International Swimming Hall of Fame Honours Induction and 40th Anniversary Celebration: Born on June 9th, 1939, had a stellar career as both a marathon swimmer and later a trainer.

A cronological listing of her achievements include; 1961-England to France, 21 hours 35 minutes. 1961-Capri to Naples, Italy, 12 hours. 1961-Lake Ohrid, Yugoslavia, 35Km 14 hours. 1962-Capri to Naples, Italy, 11 hours 30 minutes. 1963-Montazza to Alexandria, Egypt, 40Km, 15 hours. 1967-France to England, 17 hours 50 minutes – the third woman and first British/European women to have swum the English Channel in both directions.

1969 trained Jon Erikson, then the youngest boy to swim the Channel. 1976 trained Jon Erikson when he broke his father Ted’s two-way Channel crossing with a record time of 30 hours 0 minutes. 1981 trained Jon Erikson for his three-way English Channel, E-F, F-E, E-F, in 38 hours 27 minutes – the first ever three-way swim

1984 Rosemary trained a number of other successful Channel swimmers including Father Robert Manning, U.S. Navy Catholic Priest – the only “Man of the Cloth” to have swum the Channel, in a time of 18 hours 15 minutes.

One of Rosemary’s English Channel swimming attempts in 1960 was from England to France. After 21 hours 10 minutes, 400 yards off the beach in France, Rosemary was heading for shore accompanied by a rowing dinghy which lost sight of the pilot boat in the dark, pulled Rosemary from the water before she stepped ashore and rowed nine miles to Calais Harbour where they were taken to the cross-Channel ferry by the police.

Rosemary and the dinghy crew had been reported missing and both Calais and Dover lifeboats had been launched. It all ended safely but was quite a story in the national newspapers at the time.

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