Gilchrist Maclagan

Gilchrist Maclagan was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford where he was one of the finest coxes to have steered Oxford boats. He steered them in four Boat Races 1899-1902 but enjoyed victory just once, by two-fifths of a length, in 1901. He was also cox to the Leander eight that won the 1908 Olympic gold medal, and in the seven years between 1899 and 1905, Maclagan steered the Leander eight to six victories in the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley, the only person to achieve this honour.

A member of the Stock Exchange since 1904, Maclagan was commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Three months after joining the Warwickshire’s he was sent abroad and spent four months in the trenches before eventually losing his life in the Second Battle of Ypres on 25 April 1915. At the time of his death, Maclagan was honorary secretary of the Amateur Rowing Association.