Len Stewart

Leonard Stewart covered the whole spectrum of skating. He started as a roller skater and was in 1928 the London One Mile Champion and that same year set the roller skating record for the London to Brighton run, a record which stood for over eight years. He later replicated his London One Mile Championship win, but as an ice speed skater. Appointed an ice skating instructor he also competed as a professional figure skating and was a runner-up in the world’s professional pairs championship in 1933 with Emmie Boyd, who became Stewart’s wife the previous year. He later teamed up with his wife and Hermann Perren in a professional skating troupe called the Cossack Trio in 1936 and in 1938 Stewart was appointed the ice skating instructor and floor manager at the new Kirkcaldy Ice Rink in Scotland. After a short spell coaching in Switzerland, and performing in a high-speed skating act at the London Coliseum, he set sail for New York City as part of 37-strong team of performing skaters, known as the European Ice Revue, to entertain skating fans in America. He later returned to the United States and became a skating instructor at The Valley Ice Skating Center, Tarzana, Los Angeles. He eventually became a naturalized American and died in his adopted home in 1995.

Personal Bests: 500 – 54.8 (1928); 1500 – 2:48.9 (1928); 5000 – 10:40.0 (1928).