Stan Clarke

Freestyle swimmer Stan Clarke first attracted attention as a promising 18-year-old when he reached the 440 yards final at the 1956 national championships. He just missed out on selection for the Melbourne Olympics despite having made his international début by the time the Games came around. Clarke was, however, selected for the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff and, as the 100 and 220 yards national champion in 1960, was also chosen for the Rome Olympics, were his best result was seventh in the 4 x 100 meres medley relay.

Clarke won three medals at international level. After winning a silver in the 4 x 100 free relay at the 1962 Leipzig European Championships, he went to the Perth (Australia) Commonwealth Games as captain of the England swimming team and won a bronze medal in both the 4 x 100 free relay and individual 220 yards freestyle. Nationally, Clarke won just two ASA titles as above but, between 1957-62, also enjoyed nine further podium finishes at distances between 100 and 440 yards. He probably would have won more titles had the leading Scot Ian Black not been around in the same era. Clarke´s two titles in 1960 came when Black was absent because of a throat infection.

Clarke started swimming at around the age of 15, and was still swimming competitively beyond the age of 70 in masters events and continued swimming up to the age of 77. Clarke, who did his two years National Service in the Royal Air Force in the early 1960s, joined the police force in 1961 after losing his job at the Whipps Cross Lido at Walthamstow, Essex, for taking unofficial time off work to swim for Great Britain against Russia in Moskva (Moscow) in 1961. He later worked as a swimming attendant at St. Bartholomew´s Hospital, London.