Colin Lewis

Colin Lewis’ early competitive swimming centred around the Cheltenham area where he was brought up. However, he ventured further afield to Holloway in London in 1905 to compete in the ASA 150 Yards Backstroke Championship. He failed to win a medal in a race won by Sheffield’s Willie Call. Selected for the 100 metres back at the 1908 London Olympics, Lewis was one of four Britons to qualify for the semi-finals but only one, Bert Haresnape, went through to the final. After the Olympics, Lewis concentrated on giving swimming demonstrations and exhibitions, and continued to play water polo for the Cheltenham Club, who he had helped to win the Western Counties title in 1901, 1903 and 1905. Despite being overlooked for the 1912 Olympic trial, Lewis competed in the ASA backstroke in his home county, Gloucestershire, but being aged 30 at the time, failed to enjoy a podium finish in a race won for the first of three consecutive years by Yorkshire’s George Webster. Lewis moved to Alberta, Canada before World War I and went on to win local and national back stroke titles. During the war he served with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. His son Norman became the Western Canada motorcycle hill-climbing champion.