Bill Sambell

Bill Sambell was educated at Melbourne Grammar School before going to Pembroke College, Cambridge. He appeared at Henley in 1931, when he teamed up with another former Melbourne student, Lewis Luxton, to finish second in the Silver Goblets & Nickalls’ Challenge Cup to the Oxford pair of “Jumbo” Edwards and Lewis Clive.

Sambell won the first of three Blues in 1932 and that year, representing the Leander Club, won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley and then represented Great Britain at the Los Angeles Olympics, finishing fourth. He won further Blues in 1933 and 1934, and was on the winning crew on all three occasions that he competed in the Boat Race. Further success followed at Henley when he was a member of the Pembroke coxless fours that won the Stewards’ Challenge Cup in both 1933 and 1934.