200 years of rowing at Trinity

As more than 200 members celebrate the bicentenary of Trinity’s Boat Club, we share a potted history of rowing at the College.

 

1825: Trinity’s Boat Club is founded

 In 1825 a handful of Trinity students founded the College’s first rowing club – and perhaps the first in Cambridge.

Prior to this, groups of friends would hire boats – sculls, pairs or four- or six-oars – for a day’s outing on the Cam, as a form of exercise and as an excursion, often with a picnic.

Writing to The Field, ‘The Country Gentleman’s Newspaper’ in 1882, CFR Baylay describes his experience on the Cam as a Trinity student nearly 60 years earlier, when students would hire a four-oar and engage in impromptu chases with St John’s.

Overtaken by The Lady Margaret, a John’s eight, the Trinity men commissioned their own.

‘She, as was the custom then, was built entirely of oak, and was very crank, but fast under a crew well together. We called her the King Edward III, and I took my place in her as stroke,’ wrote Mr Baylay.

His account describes the formation of the Cambridge University Boat Club and the introduction of set races each term – including the bumps, the first proper race of which took place in February 1827.

So long as our crew remained together – i.e. till the October Term, 1827 … we kept our place as head of the river. The Lady Margaret always pressed us dangerously during the first half of the distance; after that we went away from them.

 

Success on and off the Cam 

Trinity’s various boat clubs were formed around friendship groups and school ties. First Trinity (so called after 1833), Second Trinity (established 1832) and Third Trinity (1833) competed against each other as well as the other College crews.

Chris Harding’ History of Trinity Rowing charts their rise and demise in the mid-to late-nineteenth century. Between 1827 and 1908, Trinity was Head of the River 52 times.

At the first ever Henley Regatta in 1839, which featured a fair and other amusements alongside an afternoon of rowing races, Trinity won the Grand Challenge Cup. In 1860 and 1861 First Trinity won the Grand, the Ladies and the Stewards Cups at Henley.

 

The advent of the May Ball

In 1866 First Trinity was head of the river and Third Trinity was second. The first boat club ball was held at the Red Lion Hotel, moving in subsequent years from the Corn Exchange to marquees on the Backs.

In 1897, First and Third Trinity formed the ‘Trinity Boat Club’, to allow a combined crew to race at Henley (combined clubs could not compete.) That year marked the first ‘First and Third May Ball.’

But it was not until 1941 that First and Third formally merged as a club, a decision ratified in 1946, in light of post-war austerity, a shortage of rowers for Third Trinity (which only those from Eton or Westminster could join) and criticism of elitism.

 

Boat Race successes 

In this 1903 picture of the winning Cambridge crew on the Thames, only the Trinity men are named. The College affiliation of the rower in seat five is not mentioned!

Trinity members had won the 1849 Boat Race with a crew and cox drawn entirely from Third and First Trinity. Between 1898 and 1914 on average five Trinity members a year rowed in the University Boat.

Fast forward to the twenty-first century and Trinity members regularly join the CUBC Squad. Trinity’s most recent Olympian Imogen Grant was in three winning Cambridge Boat crews. Most recently, in 2025, Polly Shorrock rowed to victory in Blondie.

 

Wartime 

Just prior to the outbreak of war in October 1914, when the University closed, Trinity crews raced in the last Bumps for four years.

Pictured is the Trinity Rugby Boat, after bumping First Trinity’s fifth boat and LMBC’s third boat in the Lent Bumps.

Among the crew members was David Clemetson (top row, second left), Trinity’s first Black student, who came from Jamaica to study in England in 1912.

He enlisted at the start of the war and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. Tragically he was killed on the Western Front less than two months before the end of war.

 

The Olympics: 1924, 1928 and 1952

Trinity rowers had represented Great Britain in the Olympic regatta of 1908, with three members in the gold medal winning Leander crew.

In 1924 after wins at Henley, the Third Trinity coxless four (pictured above) was asked to represent Great Britain at the Olympics. Competing against France, Switzerland and Canada, the latter being the favourites, the Trinity crew won gold by one and half lengths.

Four years later the First Trinity coxless also achieved gold in the Amsterdam Olympics.

Fast forwards to 1952 and Trinity men Peter Brandt and John MacMillan ended up at the Helsinki Olympics, almost by accident, as Sir John, now in his 90s recalls ‘ … even with the amateur spirit that existed in those days, I think we must have been quite the most inexperienced crew taking part in any event.’

With less than 40 days to prepare– and too much hard training just before the races – they did not qualify for the final.

In both races we had a descent cruising speed, but when it came to needing to fly at the finish we just didn’t seem to have the fire that we had when Peter trained on a programme of parties.

 

1978: the first women at Trinity – and the first women’s boat  

When Amanda North came from America to join Trinity’s first cohort of female students in 1978, she had never considered taking up rowing. But at the freshers’ fair she spotted ‘a particularly lively (and fit) group of men’ – which turned out to be the Men’s First & Third Boat Club’ and asked about a ladies’ crew.

They laughed and told me there was no such thing. Undaunted, I blurted out “could I start one?” Laughing again, they said – sure, why not …’

A decade later, with women at Trinity making up a quarter of undergraduates at the College, the women’s crews were still rowing in heavy wooden boats with wooden oars, designed for men.

Captain Fiona Holland and her deputy Alison McRae started a fundraising campaign which included a sponsored 56-mile row to King’s Lynn in order to raise money for a modern lightweight boat.

It was named ‘Margot’ after the wife of alumnus Denys Lawrence, who returned in his 80s to coach College crews, and was particularly supportive of women’s rowing.

 

Paris 2024 

Imogen Grant, who famously only tried rowing in exchange for a few drinks, is a triple Blue in the sport and has a Blue in cycling.

Trinity enabled her to take time out from her medical degree to train and compete internationally. After missing the podium – by 0.01 of a second – at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with her rowing partner Emily Craig, Imogen tweeted: ‘You win or you learn.’

In the Paris 2024 Olympics she and Emily secured gold in the Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls.

 

From strength to strength

This year, First and Third won the Michell Cup – the first time since 2015. This trophy has been awarded since 1923 to the College Boat Club that has performed the best over the course of the academic year.

Luke Barratt, Secretary of First and Third, said: ‘We scored an exceptional 128 points – the last triple digit score being in 2007 – and second place (Selwyn) scored just 54.6 points.’

Any member of Trinity is welcome to give rowing a go – and that’s what makes First and Third such a strong and inclusive community, says Luke.

 

With thanks to Luke Barratt, Chris Harding, Sir John MacMillan and the Trinity Archives team.

Unless otherwise stated, all photos courtesy of Trinity College and First and Third.