Wingfield Sculls

The race was founded on 10 August 1830, at the instigation of barrister Henry Colsell Wingfield. The idea for the race was suggested at a dinner after a sculling race and following this a subscription dinner was held at the Swan in Battersea, where money was raised to fund the event, the rules were decided and a date was set.[1]

The initial conditions were that the race should be run on the half tide from Westminster to Putney against all challengers, annually on 10 August forever (10 August being Wingfield's birthday), though the first race actually went from the Red House, Battersea to Hammersmith.[1]

The Wingfield Sculls, the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta and the London Cup in the Metropolitan Regatta made up the "Triple Crown" of the three premier amateur single sculling events in the United Kingdom.[1]

Following the first Wingfield Sculls race, a separate Championship of the Thames for professional scullers was held for the first time in October 1831, which ceased in 1957 due to a decline in prize purses from betting in the sport and on the merger of the 'amateur' and 'professional'/'manual trade' former class-based categories of rowers.

The 2007 event on 25 October saw the revival of the women's championship which, except for the years between 1939–48, had been an annual event from 1929 until the early 1970s, when the Women's Amateur Rowing Association amalgamated with the ARA.

The Wingfield Family Society have been involved with the Wingfield Sculls for the last 10 years (and a few years ago presented the Wingfield Sculls Committee with a new giant flag). It has also funded and presented a silver Trophy – based on Henry Wingfield’s original 1830 Trophy – for the revived Women’s Wingfields.

The closest living relative to Henry Wingfield, Clare Morton (the g-g-great granddaughter of Henry’s Uncle John Wingfield) presented both the trophy to the winner of the 2007 race, Elise Laverick (Thames RC), and a framed montage of extracts about the "Life of the Wingfield Sculls Founder" to Wade Hall-Craggs, the Honorary Secretary of the Wingfield Sculls Committee.

Results

The last champion to win a hat trick on the Tideway was Margaret Gladden, she held the title from 1966-1971.

• Rowing on the River Thames

Bibliography

• Cleaver, Hylton, A History of Rowing.
• British Amateur Rowing Association Almanacks, 1898–2007.