Dorothy Drew

Dorothy Drew started diving in India where the family lived when her father, Lieutenant-Colonel M. C. Drew, served in the Indian Army with the 2nd Gurkha Rifles. At the age of 11 Dorothy won a West of India Springboard Championship at Bombay.

In order to improve her diving skills, Drew returned to England in 1947 and lived near Grimsby, where she trained with the Grimsby Ladies’ Alexandra Swimming Club. Before the age of 13 she had finished third in the Midlands Counties Women’s Diving Championships, and won the 50 yards at the Grimsby Junior Swimming Championships. Her father sold their house in Grimsby, however, and moved to Sunbury-on-Thames in February 1949 so she would be closer to the well-known coach Jack Beasley.

Being coached by the British team coach paid dividends for Drew, and later in 1949 she won the Southern Counties ASA and Middlesex 1m diving titles. The following year she was chosen to represent Great Britain in an international match against Germany. Drew also finished third in that year’s 3m springboard at the ASA Diving Championships at Morecambe. The following year she regained the Middlesex title and finished second to Ann Long in the National Championship at New Brighton.

Drew, who worked part-time for an optician in London’s Mayfair, was selected for the 3m springboard event at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics as a 17-year-old and, in finishing 11th in the qualifying round, missed out on the final dives. Drew followed her Olympic appearance by winning her only national title (3m) shortly afterwards. Drew was also a fine tennis and netball player and captained her school teams in her final year at Clarke’s College, Surbiton.