Rupert de Larrinaga

Although born in Liverpool, the de Larrinaga family hailed from the Basque province of Vizcaya, before moving to England in 1863 and forming the Larrinaga Shipping Company. Sailing out of Liverpool, their ships traded with Spanish colonies, and the United States.

Rupert, who served as a lieutenant-colonel in the Army in the years shortly after World War II, went on to become a very good skier and was, in 1954 and 1956, the captain of the British Ski Team, although he did not compete in the Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympics. His best year was probably 1952, when he won the Scottish Ski Club’s Kandahar Cup in the Cairngorms. He also finished fifth overall in the British Championships, third in the combined and downhill at the Lowlanders’ Championship, and competed at the Olympic Games. De Larringa never won a British title but finished third in the slalom at St. Moritz in 1953. He tried his hand at motor sport in the 1950s, taking part in his Allard in sprints and hill climbs, and was a winner of the famous Shelsley Walsh International Hill Climb.

De Larrinaga, who served as a director of the family shipping business, later lived on the Isle of Man, and in 1994 the island honored him by producing a postage stamp bearing his portrait, in commemoration of the centenary of the IOC. Two ships in the Larrinaga fleet bore the name Rupert de Larrinaga. The first, built in 1930, was torpedoed during World War II. Interestingly, one of the company’s ships, the Buena Ventura, was the first steamer under a Spanish flag to pass through the Suez Canal.