Stanley Leigh

Trained by the well-known coach Walter Standish, Stanley Leigh went on to win three national titles and appear at two Olympics in a brief competitive gymnastic career.

Leigh did not start competitive gymnastics until he was 16½ but, at the age of 19, was selected for the 1920 Antwerpen Olympics. Having won the Welsh title, Leigh went on to win the first of three successive English National titles in 1922 and, in doing so, became the first Welshman to win the title. In the third of those years (1924), he went on to captain the British gymnastics team at the Paris Olympics.

A former electrical engineer, Leigh turned professional in 1925, travelled around the Variety Halls of Britain with his gymnastics act, and worked on the Continent with a Romanian Troupe called “The Marvellous Popescos”. On his return to Britain, he performed a parallel bar double act with a female partner under the name of “Swan and Leigh”.

Leigh helped Swansea win the nation team title for the first time in 1924 and his successes inspired the next great Swansea gymnast, Arthur Whitford, who won the national title 10 times up to the outbreak of World War II. Leigh was also a fine exponent of fancy diving and swimming, and aquatic gymnastics.