Edith Mayne

The daughter of well-known West-Country track cyclist Harry Mayne, Edith Mayne became a leading swimmer in the 1920s. She finished third in the ASA 440 yards freestyle in 1925 and was second in 1926, having earlier won that year’s 220 yards title. That same year, she set a world 1,500 metre record of 24:00.2 at Exmouth Devon. Mayne enjoyed five more ASA podium finishes; 220 yards runner-up in 1927-29, and 440 yards third place in 1927 and 1929. She went on to hold British native 1000 metres and one-mile records for more than 21 years.

During a tour by the British ladies’ swimming team to South Africa in 1929, Mayne met her future husband, Daniel John Peacock, secretary of the Railston Swimming Club at Bulawayo, and member of the Bulawayo Swimming Board. They married in Cape Town two years later, and in 1937 the couple made their new home in Rhodesia. Edith Mayne died in 1953, and the following year the Edith Mayne Trophy was inaugurated by the Devon Amateur Swimming Association and it is now presented to their senior women’s 200 metres champion each year.