Jimmy Worthington

Jimmy Worthington’s swimming prowess started attracting attention when he was a 10-year-old member of the Garston Swimming Club in Liverpool, and when he was 13 he won the Liverpool Schools 50 yards title. He soon became an exponent of the backstroke, and was one of the first swimmers in the area to take up the stroke, and in 1919 won the Northern Counties title in that discipline. In 1922 he won the Northern Counties and Lancashire 100 yards freestyle titles, both in record times, and in 1924 finished second to fellow Garston member Austin Rawlinson in the ASA 150 yards backstroke, his only podium finish. At the Paris Olympics that year, Worthington reached the 100 metres backstroke semi-final, and shortly after the Games, represented the British Empire in a match against the United States at Harrow.

Worthington joined the Oldham police force on the administrative staff in 1925 and swam, and played water polo, for the police team. He moved to London to take up a post in the Borough Treasurer’s Department at the Ealing Town Council in 1935 and, having obtained his ASA teaching certificate, trained swimmers in the area until 1937 when he moved to Hornchurch to take up a new job. Worthington’s brother John was a fine swimmer, and was also a Liverpool schools champion.