Roy Ellison

Roy Ellison, 1933–2024

It is with sadness we record the death of Roy Ellison at the age of 91 on Saturday 23 November following a short illness.

Roy joined Cygnet in the early 1960s (his application form has long since gone astray) and counted Mike Arnold-Gilliat, Colin Dominy, Len Huggett, Peter Jeffs, Lawrence McVeigh and Peter Roche among his contemporaries.

The 1960s were a lean time for Cygnet and silverware was sparse. Nonetheless, Roy and his generation were no strangers to adversity, having been among the last to do National Service, and he and his contemporaries kept the club going through this lacklustre era when Cygnet found it hard to boat competitive crews.

Roy’s first love was football: a gifted amateur, he had honed his talents while serving in the RAF in the Far East. As an ex-national serviceman, he came to rowing relatively late: aged thirty something, he would have been classed as a veteran. However, his innate strength and agility stood him in good stead and he soon acclimatised to life on the water.

Lawrence McVeigh, a lifelong friend, recalls I think he joined Cygnet in 63 or 64 as I raced with him, Mick Clifford and Jimmy Dunlop. We won Novice Fours at Peterborough in 1963 or 64. Hamstrung by a lack of new members and poor equipment, it would be some time before Roy ascended through the ranks to ‘junior’ and ‘junior-senior’. Still, there was no shortage of in-house events to keep him occupied.

Business houses and public sector rowing were in their element in the 1960s. Scratch Vllls events, the forerunner of the Business Houses Head, were regular features of the rowing calendar, along with private matches against Oxford and Cambridge colleges and the Armed Forces. As an active committee member, Roy played his part in organising these in-house contests, not to mention addressing the ever present concern of fund raising. His legacy lives on as one of the team who successfully launched the then 200 Club in 1969.

Norman Cowling, one of the new intake of graduates in the late 1960s, recalls Roy as a great club member, down to earth and usually wise cracking. Roy was strong and someone you enjoyed rowing with - a vital sort of club man who would turn out in any crew in any seat, someone we looked up to and relied upon.

Patience was rewarded in the fullness of time. Thus, in 1969 he rowed in an Vlll (pictured with Roy at four) that won ‘juniors’ at Chiswick and Putney Town before competing in ‘junior senior’ class at Richmond, Kingston, Staines and Barnes & Mortlake. While silverware narrowly eluded them at the latter events, the message was clear: Cygnet was no longer in the doldrums.

In 1972, club fund raising received a shot in the arm when Cygnet was invited to do a waterborne publicity stunt for Ind Coope Brewery extolling the virtues of Double Diamond: I’m only here for the beer….it’s DD. As Roy Alder, the bow man in the eight which took part, recalls, Roy was one of the fortunate four who appeared on the advertising hoarding, rowing at three.

The poster lives on in the club’s annals and for many years a larger than life version adorned a wall in our sister club Rudergesellshaft Benrath, a relationship that was forged during Roy’s era. Indeed, Roy was one of the party that made the second club visit to Benrath in 1972, in the wake of the inaugural visit in 1965. These were pioneering times.

Stardom had its place, but for Roy the best was yet to come. In 1973, together with Messrs Huggett, Jeffs and Roche, he won a veteran IVs event at Vesta International Veterans Regatta beating Barclays Bank and Frankfurt, Germany. It was a fitting finale to his competitive rowing career and an especially gratifying win for him and Jeffs, a fellow footballer turned rower.

In later years, Roy continued to make appearances at Old Blades on Henley Friday, as well as the ‘old hands’ winter gatherings at Leander Club and the Civil Service Club. Always cheerful, he never missed an opportunity to liven up the proceedings with the odd wise crack.

Roy is survived by Julia, his spouse of more than half a century, son James, daughter Sarah and a multitude of grandchildren. His funeral will take place at 16.30 on 6 December at Loughborough Crematorium.

With thanks to Lawrence McVeigh, Norman Cowling, Roy Alder and Richard du Parcq

Paul Rawkins, 28 November 2024