Philip Filleul

The eldest son of a Church of England vicar, Philip Filleul was educated at Repton, and Wadham College, Oxford. Although he rowed for his college at Oxford, he never won his Blue despite appearing in the Boat Race Trials for the 1908 and 1909 races. He won the Prince of Wales’ Challenge Cup for pairs at the Oxford Royal Regatta in 1907 with P. P. W. Andrews, and the following year Filleul was in the Wadham eight that beat Christ Church, Oxford to win the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley.

At the 1908 London Olympics, Filleul won a silver medal with the Leander coxless fours and was also a reserve to the eights that won the gold medal. It was thought that Filleul’s rowing career might be over in 1909 following a bizarre accident. He was coaching his Wadham College eight and was holding a starter’s gun containing black cartridges in one hand and a megaphone in the other. Wanting to transmit information to the crew from the river bank, he swapped gun and megaphone from one hand to the other and, unknown to Filleul, there was still a cartridge in the gun that went off while he had the barrel covered with his hand. He lost a lot of blood and suffered nerve damage. He recovered, however, and four months later was rowing in the Diamond Sculls at Henley.

By profession, Filleul worked for the Government in the Colonial Service. Upon retiring, he devoted his time to his passion of bee keeping. His 26-year-old son, also called Philip, served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in World War II and was killed in 1944 when returning from a sortie over Frankfurt with Bomber Division when their plane went missing in the English Channel.