Robin Brock-Hollinshead

Robin Brock-Hollinshead was born in Switzerland to an Irish father and Swiss mother. He was granted British citizenship at the age of 18 in 1946, and in 1954 finished third in the Men’s British Skiing Championship at Wengen in his home country. Two years later, he was a member of the Great Britain alpine skiing squad at the Cortina Winter Olympics. He competed only in the downhill, but was one of many skiers to fall on a difficult course, and was subsequently disqualified.

A member of the DHO (Downhill Only Club) since 1959, Brock-Hollinshead became Great Britain’s first national skiing coach in 1964. It was a position he held for five years and, in addition to coaching the best of British skiers, he also taught novices to ski. It was estimated he taught over 40,000 beginners to ski. In 1972 the Lord’s Ski School, with its artificial ski slope designed by quantity surveyor Brock-Hollinshead, opened at Lord’s Cricket ground for use in the winter months.

Brock-Hollinshead, who worked for a London firm of ski manufacturers, was also involved with water skiing from the start of its popularity in Britain in the early 1950s. His finest moment as a competitor came in 1962 when he won the inaugural South-Western Counties Water Skiing Championship on the river Teign in Devon, watched by a crowd of over 3,000.