Being A Swimmer

What first interested you in swimming?

The most extraordinary thing was that during the war, as they say every ‘night was firework night', and we never knew this until school was over. And we had to do something with our lives. So we used to buck off and go somewhere my mate and I used to swim in the canal, the Grand Mimi canal which was full of dead dogs and things and blood and goodness knows what. Well, my parents didn't know. Anyway, eventually they found out and they went berserk you see. They thought I was going to come down with the plague or something. I loved swimming, you see, and it was summer. And the canal was the only bit of water near to us, so anyway she found out, well mom and dad found out, and they packed me off as it were, to the local swimming pool which was in Southall – they took me there – the open air pool.

Did you swim at the Olympics?

Well, alas, alas, I was hoping I was going to go to the Melbourne Olympics and I didn't make it. It broke my heart because all my friends went and I said, "Oh, God!" And I was only that much away. And it really did break my heart because I hadn't traveled at all up to that time (we couldn't afford to), and the thought of going to Australia would have been absolutely awesome.