Annesley Kingsford

Although he was born in Dublin, his mother’s hometown, Annesley Kingsford was brought up in India, where his father was a Calcutta magistrate. Kingsford was educated in England, firstly at Uppingham School in Rutland before going to Pembroke College, Cambridge. At University he was a double rowing Blue, being on the winning crews of 1934 and 1935, when his brother Desmond rowed alongside him. They were the eighth pair of siblings to row for Cambridge in the same Boat Race, and the last until the Holt Brothers in 1972.

Kingsford was in the Pembroke eight that finished runners-up to London Rowing Club (LRC) in the 1933 Head of the River Race, and was also in the eight that lost in a heat to LRC at Henley that year. However, the following year Kingsford rowed bow for Pembroke as they beat the LRC to win the Stewards’ Cup at Henley, and in 1935 he won the Grand Challenge Cup with Pembroke. More than 85 years later, it remained Pembroke’s one and only win in the race. Kingsford nearly won a second Grand the following year, this time as a member of the Leander boat, but they lost to Ruder Club, Zürich. Brother Desmond, who was killed in action in 1944, was runner-up in the 1937 Silver Goblets at Henley.

Annesley Kingsford served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy in World War II and was mentioned in dispatches in 1945. After leaving the Navy he emigrated to Canada with his wife Mary, who he married at Basra, Iran, in 1940. He worked in the oil industry for many years and in 1957 became a partner in the OH Ranch (named after Orville Hawkins Smith) in Alberta. Kingsford died in Canada in 2006 at the age of 93.