‘The Old Firm’: Trinity’s success at the 1924 Olympics

As Trinity supports Imogen Grant’s quest for an Olympic medal, we look back on the College’s winners from the 1924 Paris Olympics.

Charles Maxwell Eley, James McNabb, Robert Morrison and Terrence Sanders who had rowed together since their Eton College school days, won gold in the coxless fours.

They entered the competition as favourites having triumphed in the Stewards’ Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta, then the equivalent of a World Championship, in 1922, 1923 and 1924.

Leading for the entire race during the final, they completed the course at the Argenteuil Basin, Paris in 7:08.6 seconds winning by 1½ lengths.

Maxwell Eley wrote to his Trinity Tutor Gaillard Lapsley and said of the crew whom he referred to as ‘the old firm’:

“Our visit to Paris was successful thank goodness! What with that and Henley I have every reason to be very pleased with the finish up of the rowing year.”

Prior to the race he had been more disapproving. Their boats which were transported from England were delayed and, having inspected the Parisian boat houses, washing and changing facilities, Eley concluded that they were much better at Henley.

The minutes of the Third Trinity Boat Club, currently on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Paris 1924 exhibition, contain a handwritten account of the race.

At the same Olympics, marksman Cyril Mackworth-Praed won a gold and two silvers in the shooting events. He went to compete again 28 years later in the 1958 Olympics.

Athlete Guy Montagu Butler won two bronze medals in the relay and the 400 metres in Paris.

Montagu Butler, who was the grandson of the Master of Trinity Henry Montagu Butler, had previously won a silver and gold in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. In 1928 he became the first British track and field athlete to compete in three Olympics.

Paris 1924 at the Fitzwilliam.