Downstream

presented with a silver
medallion, which he still has
today, and to have his
photograph in the local paper.
Organised river racing in
Reading continued into the
1970s, with the local police
holding a one-mile race in
July, ‘long after most people
had deserted the river for the
heated pools,’ says Gillian,
‘as they would have had to
know how to jump in and
rescue someone in trouble’.