Downstream

women on the Thames, was
formed. They held their first
meeting in May 1898 with
twenty-four members and a
few months later performed
an ‘entertainment’ in front of
an all-female audience of
fifty. ‘At first it was decreed
that competitors should race
in long dresses,’ explains
local historian June Sampson.
‘Mercifully for them, this
idea was dropped and they
presumably wore the uniform