Peter Kirkpatrick

Peter Kirkpatrick enjoyed a career in rowing that spanned almost 60 years. From the time he rowed at Henley with his school, Monkton Combe, near Bath, in 1934 and 1935, he went on to become one of the most accomplished oarsmen on the Thames. After his rowing days, Kirkpatrick could be seen attending major events as an enthusiastic spectator from the balcony of the Thames Rowing Club, until shortly before his death in 1995. He was a vice-president and trustee of the club at the time of his death.

In the years leading up to World War II, Kirkpatrick rowed at the Henley Royal Regatta for both Thames RC and his college, Queen’s, Cambridge. During the war, he rose to the rank of major serving with, first, the Manchester Regiment, and then the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment, where he saw service in Greece and Italy.

After the war Kirkpatrick resumed his rowing career, and in 1947 and 1948 stroked the Thames RC four to win the Stewards’ Challenge Cup. In the latter year he was also stroke to the Thames eights that won the Grand Challenge Cup. He represented Britain at the 1947 European Championships and1948 Olympics without medaling but, at the 1950 Commonwealth Games, he won a bronze medal for England in the eights, in a combined Thames/Leander team. His final major success was in winning his final Stewards‘ at Henley in 1951.

Kirkpatrick worked for ICI for nearly 30 years until 1967, when he moved to the Post Office, and then worked for British Telecom (BT), until his retirement.