Remembering Harry Clasper, Jimmy Renforth and Bob Chambers
In the 19th century, long before football became our passion, the biggest spectator sport was rowing. There were local championships, national championships and world championships. Rowers from the Tyne excelled and crowds of 100,000 would line both banks of the Tyne to see competitors scull their way between the old Tyne Bridge and Scotswood Bridge. Harry Clasper, Jimmy Renforth and Bob Chambers were all world champions and hugely successful on both sides of the Atlantic. They could win as much as £200 in a big race, which was more than a year’s wages in the mid-19th century.
Harry Clasper in particular was not only a fine rower, but he was also instrumental in designing the forerunner of the light skiff with outriggers used to this day. 100,000 attended his funeral in Whickham, where there is an imposing monument still to be seen. The funeral procession started at the Tunnel Inn at the mouth of the Ouseburn in the Toon but by the time it reached Sandgate, the crowds were so dense that the casket had to be transferred to a barge and sailed up-river.
Jimmy Renforth, who suffered from epilepsy, died in a race in New Brunswick, Canada. His last words were, ‘What will they think in England?" The town of Renforth in New Brunswick was named after him. Another massive funeral crowd was present in Gateshead and his huge monument is outside the Shipley Art gallery, in "The Heed".
A song written by Rowland Harrison, when news of his death reached hym:
‘Ye cruel Atlantic cable
What’s myed ye bring such fearful news?
When Tyneside’s barely yeble
Such sudden grief te bide.
Hoo me heart beats
Ivvorybody greets
As the whispor runs through dowley streets
We’ve lost poor Jimmy Renforth
The champion iv Tyneside’
Bob Chambers if anything was even more successful, but died of tuberculosis at the age of 37 and is buried in Walker, again under an impressive memorial.
All three men ran pubs, Clasper’s paid for by public subscription.
In the later 19th and 20th centuries, professional rowing as with professional athletics began to be looked down upon by the middle and upper classes, who relished the Corinthian ideals of amateur sport.
Memory added on February 24, 2021
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