Angela Barnwell

The daughter of a Worthing greengrocer, Angela Barnwell only took up serious swimming at the beginning of 1951, and less than nine months later was regarded as the swimming sensation of the year and was, despite being just 15 years of age, the fastest woman in Britain. She won the ASA junior girls’ 100 yards freestyle title in a time of 62.9 sec, 0.6 sec faster than the senior winner. Her winning time was a record that stood for six years. She went on to win Sussex and Southern Counties titles and, when she was selected for the 1952 Olympics, her local baths in Worthing stayed open for two extra months in the winter period so she could continue with her training programme. Barnwell never won a medal in Helsinki but thousands lined the streets of her home-town to welcome the schoolgirl back. She was lucky, however, to compete at the Games at all. Just four days before her first race, she was hit by a tram on the streets of Helsinki because, as she said, she forgot the traffic in Finland was on the “wrong side of the road”.

Barnwell was expected to make the British squad for her second Olympics in 1956 but, following a move to London and change of coach, her form dipped dramatically. Despite getting rid of the coach, it was too late to get her season back on track in time for Olympic selection. Barnwell married the former Great Britain water polo captain Duncan Kemp in 1958 and they had a daughter but, when her daughter was just four years of age, Barnwell was admitted to St. Bart’s hospital in London with Hodgkin’s Disease. Two weeks later, Angela Barnwell was dead, aged just 29.