Peter de Giles

Peter de Giles attended Wellington School, Somerset, before going to Queen’s College, Cambridge, where he studied agriculture. At university, de Giles won a rowing Blue in 1948 when the Cambridge crew won in a record time of 17:50. It was the first time the current 6.779 km Championship Course, in use since 1845, was rowed in under 18 minutes. That record stood until 1974.

De Giles went to the 1950 British Empire Games at Auckland and won a bronze medal with the eights. Immediately after the Games, de Giles and fellow Cambridge man Tony Butcher won the coxless pairs in a regatta at Nelson Harbour. De Giles narrowly failed to win a medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics when he was in the British coxed fours that finished fourth.

De Giles rowed for both Thames Rowing Club and Leander and, with the latter, won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley in 1949 and 1953. He later went on to become coach at the Queen’s College Boat Club

A civil servant and then Kent dairy farmer, de Giles had Spanish ancestors and one of them, Juan Ponce de Léon, was an explorer who, in 1513, led the first European expedition to (La) Florida. He is also believed to have sailed with Christopher Columbus on the second voyage to the West Indies in 1493. Ponce de Léon was also the first governor of Puerto Rico.