Winchester Clowes

Winchester Clowes’ brief association with motorboating appears to be as a crew member on the Hugh, Duke Westminster’s boat Wolseley-Siddeley which ran aground and failed to finish in the A-Class event at the 1908 Olympics on Southampton water.

Clowes was a great-grandson of printer William Clowes who started what is now William Clowes Limited, and in the 19th century their Blackheath, London, printing works was the largest in the world, employing over 500 people. Winchester’s father, also Winchester, went into the family business but junior did not follow his father’s footsteps. After his education at Eton he joined the Army at 19 serving with the 4th Bedfordshire Auxiliary Regiment. Clowes obtained a commission with the 19th Hussars (Queen Alexandra’s Own) in 1899 and then saw service in South Africa but was wounded and returned home in 1900. He had reached the rank of Captain and was reinstated to that rank at the start of World War I, and was awarded the Victory and British medals. In 1914 Sainty, as he was known, married Hazel Buxton, a descendant of Henry VIII.