Julie Hoyle

The daughter of a Hertfordshire policeman, Julie Hoyle had her first serious competitive backstroke race in September 1952 at the Inter-Counties Championships at Marylebone. Less than a week later she competed in the ASA Championships at Hove. Hoyle had to wait for her first podium finish at the ASA finals until 1956, when she finished third in the backstroke final behind Judy Grinham and Margaret Edwards. All three were then selected for the Olympics later in the year and, while Grinham and Edwards both won medals, Hoyle also reached the final and finished a creditable sixth.

Hoyle beat Edwards to win her only ASA title in 1957. Hoyle retired from the sport at an early age, however, to concentrate on her new career as a stewardess with British United Airways. She briefly came out of retirement in 1962 to help the Watford Swimming Club medley relay team at the National Championships at Blackpool.

Later a swimming coach, Hoyle wrote a series of articles in the Kent Evening Post in the 1970s entitled Teach Your Child to Swim and followed that with a series of 10-minute programmes on BBC Television in the 1980s on the same subject. She also had her book, Swimming for the Family, published in 1977. Hoyle married an international triple jumper David Smith in 1964. Their son Bruce was an outstanding high jumper and was the 1982 Surrey Schools’ champion.