A DEWSBURY teacher who swam the Channel in 1950 is among the sporting legends who will feature in a new Huddersfield exhibition.
Eileen Fenton was just 22 when she tackled one of the greatest sporting challenges and succeeded at the first attempt.
She was one of just nine swimmers out of 24 competitors to make it across the English Channel in the Daily Mail’s first International Channel Race.
She finished in sixth place but also scooped the £1,000 prize for being the first woman to reach England’s shores.
The exhibition – Our Sporting Greats – is scheduled for launch at Tolson Museum in Huddersfield in March 2008 and will feature the full kit in which Eileen made that heroic effort.
Her swimsuit is already on loan to the Kirklees museums’ collections. Now Eileen, who earlier this year was made an honorary vice-president of the British Long Distance Swimming Association, has loaned her swimming cap to complete the outfit.
Among the other sporting stars also being featured in this hall of fame, which will cover sports including athletics, swimming, football, cricket, fencing and cycling from the period 1950 to around 2000, are Olympic medallists runner Derek Ibbotson and swimmer Anita Lonsbrough, and World Cup winning footballer Ray Wilson.
And, to supplement objects from the museums’ collections and items loaned from the sporting stars, members of the public are being asked to contribute personal memorabilia – either relating to the sports or, even better, the celebrities themselves.
The exhibition will include a DVD about sporting achievement in Kirklees and with interviews from the sports stars.
For more information about Our Sporting Greats or to offer items for the exhibition, contact Simon Skelling, Kirklees Museums and Galleries, tel: 01484 223803, email: simon.skelling@kirklees.gov.uk
