Skip to main content

Swimming lessons

Arthur Holyland was born in 1877 in Wortley, a village to the north of Sheffield, in Yorkshire. Like his father and grandfather before him, Arthur trained as a blacksmith. When he was a child, Arthur's family moved from the rural setting of Wortley and into the heavily industrialised centre of Sheffield, which at the time was one of the world's leading centres for the manufacturing of steel items.

In August 1899, Arthur enlisted into the Royal Marines, giving his age as 2 years younger than his baptism proves. He served on a variety of vessels before being invalided out of the Marines in 1908.

My eye was caught by a small box at the bottom of the Marines enlistment form. "Able to swim?" – Yes, Arthur could swim – he was tested on this in December 1899, in Deal, Kent, four months after joining the Royal Marines.

How did a blacksmith from a heavily industrialised town in a landlocked county learn to swim, I asked myself.

It transpires that in 1892, a tidal swimming pool was built for the Royal Marines in Deal, Kent. After a shipping tragedy in 1893 in which 2/3 of a detachment of marines drowned, it was decreed that all new entrants to the force must learn to swim (1).


So yes, Arthur was presumably taught to swim when he joined up. I haven’t been able to discover what level of swimming proficiency was required of recruits in those days, but nowadays, applicants top the Royal Marines must be able to jump off a 3m diving board, tread water for 2 minutes whilst wearing overalls, then swim for 50m in the overalls (2)  (all of which reminds me of being taught to swim in pyjamas when I was at school!

After his discharge from the Marines, Arthur returned to Sheffield where he went back to working as a blacksmith’s striker for a wagon builder. He died suddenly on the way home (possibly from the pub!) in May 1918, leaving a wife and child. His descendants still live in South Yorkshire (and I’ve no idea if they can swim!!)

(1). https://royalmarinesheritagetrails.org/trail/royal-marines-swimming-bath/

(2). https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/careers/joining/get-fit-to-join/stages-and-standards/royal-navy-ratings/prnc

 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When the Internet has it wrong! The real father of Mary.

  This lovely young woman was Mary Carmichael Smyth, the wife of James Carmichael Smyth, physician extraordinary to King George 111. Mary married James, who was several years her senior, in Gretna Green in 1775; the couple had 10 children and Mary apparently died in 1803 or 1806. This portrait was painted around 1788 by George Romney and is the possession of the National Gallery of Scotland . Multiple internet sources state that Mary's father was Thomas Holyland of Bromley, and her mother Mary Elton (eg, here: http://www.thepeerage.com/p20538.htm#i205375 ). However I am certain that these internet sources (many of which have probably been copied from each other) are wrong, and that Mary’s father was actually Christopher Holyland, a vintner of Cheapside in London, who died in 1769. Here’s my evidence. Firstly, I can find no baptism for a Mary Holyland (or variant on the name) to a father named Thomas in the south east of England in the mid 1700s. There was a baptism of Mary ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thomas Hollylande, fighting for the family home.

For generations, “home” to the Leicestershire Holylands was the village of Desford. The surviving Desford parish registers start from 1559, and the first mention of any of the Holyland family was in 1564 with the burial of Thomas Holyland. However, the Holylands had their home in Desford prior to this. An 1827 copy of the “Calendar to Pleadings and Depositions” during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs is available on the internet via Google Books (1), and contains the following: Date: Reign: 1+2 Phil + Mar   (ie 1553-4) Plaintiff: Thomas Hollylande, Son of Agnes Hollylande, Widow, deceased, a Tenant by the Custom of the Manor of Desford   Defendants: Robert Dewsburye otherwise called Strynger, Reve of the Manor of Desford, and Nicholas Crosbie who was admitted Tenant of the Premises after an alledged Forfeiture. Premises and matters in dispute: Disputed Title to a Messuage, Cottage, Land, and Pasture claimed by the Plaintiff as devised to him by his Mother’s Will, to...
Post a Comment
Read more