The History Of Wellington RC

Wellington Rowing Club is one of the famous rowing club’s in New Zealand. It was founded 125 years ago and earlier this spring the club published a jubilee book by one of its members, Michael Grace, to celebrate this event. I have previous written about this book, The Dolly Varden Legacy, (see entry on 27 May), but at that time I did not have the book in my hand. But now, here it is on my desk, a beautiful, well-written book with tons of interesting facts (also for those who have no connections to Wellington RC or New Zealand) and illustrated with some marvellous black & white photographs.

The book title is from a boat, the Dolly Varden, which successfully was used by some oarsmen in races in Wellington before the Wellington RC was even founded.

What I especially appreciate in The Dolly Varden Legacy: The History of the Wellington Rowing Club is the way Michael Grace (on the right) has manage to balance the club facts, results, etc. (that truly might only interest members of the club), with international rowers and events. To give you a couple of examples of the latter: Tom Sullivan, famous professional sculler and later coach, was a member of the club, and in the book he is given a whole chapter; the Maadi Camp Rowing Club founded by members of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Cairo in 1940. The Maadi Camp lives on in the Maadi Cup, which is a prize for the New Zealand secondary schools boys’ eights.

Wellington RC is to be congratulated for its first 125 years, and Michael Grace is to be praised for his hard work creating such a wonderful book.

The Dolly Varden Legacy can be ordered from the Wellington RC website by clicking here.

Wellington RC: The Dolly Varden Legacy

Today, I received an exciting e-mail from rower and rowing historian Michael Grace of New Zealand. He writes that at his club, Wellington RC’s 125th anniversary celebration on 15-16 May, Michael’s book, The Dolly Varden Legacy, on the club’s history was launched with great success. I had the pleasure to help Michael in September last year with some information and material I had on Tom Sullivan.

Tom Sullivan, who was a great professional sculler and later also a coach, was a member of Wellington RC, and of course there is a lot about Sullivan in Michael’s book.

Michael writes that, in early May, he met 80-year old Friedrich ‘Fritz’ Altenhuber, Hon. President of the First Viennese LIA Rowing Club. “Fritz used to be coached by Tom Sullivan when at LIA in the 40s! Now his granddaughter (!) is here in Wellington rowing! The connections have come full circle,” Michael says in his e-mail. On the left you can see a photograph of Fritz and Michael outside Wellington RC. Michael continues, “It was great talking to Fritz about his time under Tom. He was a very nice gentleman and very passionate about his rowing! Interestingly he said that Tom had had a son (out of wedlock), but he was unsure what happened to the son. Apparently he was living in England, but will be dead by now. It would be interesting to know if he had any living descendants.”

If you are interested in The Dolly Varden Legacy by Michael Grace, copies are available to purchase from the Wellington RC’s web site. The book is NZ$35, plus NZ$20 for international shipping (through PayPal). Click here to order.

Thank you, Michael for your information, and good luck selling the book!

Tom Sullivan – The ‘Old Devil’

The other week, I received an e-mail from Michael Grace, who is writing the story of his club, the Wellington Rowing Club in New Zealand. One of the great characters at the club was Tom Sullivan (1869-1947). Michael asked me for some help with a couple of pictures I have of Sullivan, who, of course, is getting his own chapter in the book.

Tom Sullivan was born in Auckland, and won his first rowing race at the age of 13. As an amateur sculler, Sullivan met with huge success, which made him join the professionals’ ranks in late 1890. Already in 1892, Sullivan raced the reigning world champion, Jim Stanbury of Australia, for the title. Sullivan lost, and the following year he challenged George Bubear of Chelsea for the Championship of England on the Championship course on the Thames in London. The New Zealander won, but was later challenged by his own professional coach, Charles ‘Wag’ Hardy, for the title. In a race on the ‘northern river’, the Tyne in Newcastle, in February 1895, Harding beat Sullivan, and again in September that year.

Later, Tom Sullivan turned to coaching, and being very successful, he moved to Berlin where he trained crews at the Berliner Ruder-Klub. Sullivan was interned during the Great War, where he organized the physical training for the Allied prisoners in the concentration camp where he was held. After the war, the ‘Old Devil’, as he called himself, spent some time at De Amstel in the Netherlands before returning to the Berliner RK in 1925. The ‘Old Devil’ – he ruled his oarsmen with severity – coached the German coxed four to an Olympic gold in Los Angeles in 1932, the same year his adepts Herbert Buhtz and Gerhard Boetzelen took an Olympic silver medal in the double sculls. Buhtz also won the Diamonds that year, and also in 1934.

There are some great stories about Tom Sullivan in Hylton Cleaver’s Sporting Rhapsody (1951) and A History of Rowing (1957), and also in Chris Dodd’s eminent The Story of World Rowing (1992).

I am eagerly waiting for Michael Grace’s book about Wellington RC, which is coming out next year to celebrate the club's 125th anniversary.