Ronnie Burns

At the 1950 Scottish Swimming Championships, 17-year-old Ronnie Burns of Pullar’s Amateur Swimming Club (now Perth City Swim Club) caused a sensation by finishing second to Scotland’s leading freestyler Jack Wardrop in the 440 yards final. Shortly afterwards, Burns was selected as a reserve for the triangular meeting for the Bologna Trophy between Scotland, England and Wales. The following year at Kilmarnock, he won his first international “cap” in the same competition. Scotland won the trophy for the second successive year, and these were the only two occasions that they lifted the trophy in its 32-year history.

By 1951, Burns was serving in the Royal Air Force (RAF) doing his National Service. He swam for the RAF and competed in inter-services events. In 1952 Burns took the Scottish national record for the 200 yards free to under two minutes at his home town of Perth, when his time of 1:58.8 knocked 5.7 secs off the old record. Buns went to the Helsinki Olympics that same year as the first Perth Olympian, and he reached the semi-final of the 400 metres free, albeit as the slowest of the qualifiers. As the semi-final was on the same day as the 4x200 free relay final, however, Burns withdrew from the individual event to save himself for the relay but, unfortunately, the British quartet could only finish sixth.

Despite winning Scottish titles, Burns never won an ASA national title but came close in the 440 in 1951 when he was second to Jack Wardrop. A journalist since he left school, Burns worked for several newspapers, including the Daily Mirror, and he also branched into television. He commentated for BBC on swimming broadcasts and was appointed producer of the popular regional BBC television news programme Look North.

Following a meeting with athlete Brendan Foster in 1979, Burns took up Masters swimming and became one of the top Masters swimmers in the North of England, and in 1981 he conquered America. Burns competed in what was regarded as the best Masters meet in the world, the US Masters Short Course Championships, and he won six freestyle and backstroke medals in the 45-50 age group. Burns’ time for the 100 free was faster than when he swam the distance as a 17-year-old.