Pat Hirst

Before she won a senior title in Britain, Pat Hirst had competed abroad when, aged 17, she was part of the Northern Counties team at the 1938 Belgian National Gymnastics Fete at Ostend. The following year she won the Yorkshire Women’s Individual Championship. After World War II, Hirst won the first of eight English individual titles, winning again in 1949-50 and 1952-56. A civil servant with the Ministry of Labour, Hirst was captain of the British women’s gymnastics team at both the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. She was actually ruled out of the 1952 Games shortly after arriving in Helsinki, suffering from a glandular problem, but, despite Dorothy Hey being flown out as her replacement, Hirst made the decision to compete at the last minute. Hirst appeared in her third Olympics in 1956, when she was the only female member of the British gymnastics team.