Thomas William Burgess
Channel Swimmer
Now I had never heard of Thomas William Burgess but I was doing some web surfing the other day about an entirely different subject when details of this 20th Century notable person from Rotherham came to light. Some 36 years after Captain Matthew Webb made the first successful swim across the English Channel, Thomas William Burgess became the second man to complete the feat. He received many Tel.egrams of congratulation including one from the King and another from Captain Webb's son.
On 7 September 1911 at 11.15am Burgess entered the water near South Foreland Lighthouse, in St. Margaret's Bay, Dover. Supported by his team in the Walmer boat 'Elsie' behind him he landed at Le ChaTel.et, east of Cape Gris Nez at 9.50am the following morning in a time of 22hrs 30mins.
Thomas William Burgess was born on 15 June 1872 at Lyndhurst Place, Rotherham. He learned to swim when young. About 1882 he moved with his family to London where he joined a swimming club, worked on increasing his swimming speed and swam the Thames down as far as Battersea. Around 1889 he went live in Paris where he worked in the motor tyre trade. He must have had quite a bit of spare time as he started channel swimming from a French tug and made 15 unsuccessful attempts before succeeding.
Thomas married Anne Rosalie Mioux in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, Paris, France on 8 August 1893. They had at least two children, a boy and a girl. They lived and worked in Paris, moved to Cap Gris Nez near Calais. During the 1920s Thomas coached the Channel swimmer Gertrude Ederle and others. They later returned to live in Paris. In 1941 it was reported by the newspapers that Thomas was taken prisoner by the Nazis and held in a prison camp Stalag 142 in Bascanon, France. He was released later the same year. Thomas died in Paris on July 2, 1950.
There was a bust of him in the Sheffield Road Swimming Baths which has now been demolished. I believe that this is now on display in Rotherham Museum.