Millie Hudson

The daughter of a flour miller, Amelia Hudson was born in Sunderland but moved to South Africa as an infant. Her father died there and when her mother returned to England in 1920 Hudson, by then known as Millie, took up swimming and diving. Many local newspapers of the day referred to her as being a South African swimmer. She got a job as a typist in Kensington, London, and joined the Hammersmith Ladies Swimming Club. She qualified for the 1924 Olympic springboard competition after winning the Olympic trial at Blackpool ahead of Catherine O’Bryen and Gladys Luscombe. Despite none of the British entrants reaching the final, Hudson was again the highest-placed of the three.

Because she suffered many injuries as a diver, Hudson turned to long-distance swimming after the Olympics, and in 1927 gave up her typing job to concentrate on training for her bid to become the first English girl to swim the English Channel. Sadly, after 13 hours in the water, she had to abandon her attempt about two miles away from Dover as a result of choppy waters, and the wind and tide against her. Shortly before her Channel swim, she had made an unsuccessful bid to swim the Straits of Gibraltar.

Hudson went to Canada as a swimming coach in 1927, but returned after six years and became a freelance journalist and was also the swimming editor of the London Evening Standard. In 1949 she became the first female member of the Sports Writers Association, and remained their only female member until 1955. Despite being a member, she was not allowed to attend the annual dinner, which was a men-only affair. Hudson remained unmarried all her life.