WATER POLO has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1900.
Britain first competed in 1900 when teams, rather than countries, competed in the team sports, and the Manchester Osborne Swimming Club represented Great Britain and won the gold medal. However, they are officially classed as a 'mixed team' because Fijian-born New Zealander Victor Lindberg was co-opted onto the Osborne team a month before the Paris Games. Osborne had been the ASA National water polo champions six years running from 1894-99,
Britain 'regained' the Olympic title in 1908, having not competed at St Louis in 1904. They then won it again in 1912 and completed the hat-trick of wins in 1920.
Between 1900-56 Britain competed in the water polo at all Games except two but the 1956 Melbourne Olympics was to be their last appearance in the sport until London 2012.
Paul Radmilovic and Charles Smith have each won a record three medals for Britain - all gold, and at successive Games, 1908, 1912 and 1920. It would not be until 1984, 1988 and 1992 when another Briton, Steve Redgrave, would win gold at three successive Olympics.
Women have been contesting water polo since 2000 but the British women competed for the first time at London 2012 when they finished eighth, and last.
For further details of the Osborne Swimming Club that won the gold medal in 1900 see the CLUB SIDES OR TEAMS WHO WON GOLD MEDALS REPRESENTING GREAT BRITAIN section.
Britain's Gold Medallists:
BENTHAM, Isaac
Born: 27 October 1886, Ince, Wigan, Lancashire, England
Died: 15 May 1917, Arras, Paid-de-Calais, France
Olympics competed in: 1 (1912)
Olympic medals: 1912 - Gold (Water polo)
The son of a Wigan grocer and insurance agent, Isaac Bentham was a forward with the 1912 gold-medal winning water polo team and like his father and grandfather before him, he also became a grocer in the Wigan area.
Bentham was killed in action during the Battle of Arras in the Western European Theatre in France whilst serving with the Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery in 1917. He was awarded the Victory, 1914-15 Star and British War medals. Former Manchester United and Manchester City football Sandy Turnbull died less than two weeks earlier during the same campaign.
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BUGBEE, Charles
Born: 29 August 1887, Stratford, London
Died: 18 October 1959, Edgware, London
Olympics competed in: 3 (1912, 1920,1924)
Olympic medals:
1912 - Gold (Water polo)
1920 - Gold (Water polo)
Charles Bugbee was one of the backs in the gold medal winning teams at Stockholm in 1912 and again at Antwerp in 1920. The war years prevented him from winning three consecutive gold medals. He did have a chance of that third gold at Paris in 1924 but Great Britain were beaten in the first round by Hungary.
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COE, Thomas
Born: 1873, Manchester, England *
Died: 26 Octiober 1942, Machester, England *
Olympics competed in: 1 (1900)
Olympic medals: 1900 - Gold (Water polo)
Thomas Coe was the captain of the Osborne Swimming Club of Manchester that won the water polo gold medal at the 1900 Paris Olympics yet strangely, very little is known about hom.
* Dates and Places of Birth & Death unconfirmed
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CORNET, George Thomson
Born: 15 July 1877, Inverness, Scotland
Died: 22 April 1952, Prescot, Lancashire, England
Olympics competed in: 2 (1908, 1912)
Olympic medals:
1908 - Gold (Water polo)
1912 - Gold (Water polo)
A Scottish international water polo player, George Cornet was a member of the Inverness Swimming Club, and was the oldest member of the British team at both the 1908 and 1912 Olympics at the age of 31 and 35 respectively.
A back with the Inverness Amateurs he helped them to five Scottish Championship finals between 1906 and 1914, winning just once, in 1909 when the beat the top Scottish team of the day - Paisley Amateurs, 4-3. It was Paisley's only defeat in seven consecutive finals. Cornet represented Scotland 17 times between 1897 and 1912.
Cornet stood at over six feet tall and was an all-round sportsman and played football and cricket for local Inverness teams.
Away from the pool, Cornet spent his life working on the railways and was a Secretary for the Highland Railway company, and then after amalgamation was the divisional cashier for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company (LMS) in Scotland before moving south to Rainhill, near Liverpool.
Cornet married twice, his first wife died in childbirth. He was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame on 12 March 2007.
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CRAWSHAW, Robert Arnold
Born: 6 March 1869, Bury, Lancashire, England
Died: 14 September 1952, Burnley, Lancashire, England
Olympics competed in: 1 (1900)
Olympic medals: 1900 - Gold (Water polo)
Robert Crawshaw was a back for the Mayfield club, but was co-opted onto the Osborne Club for the 1900 Paris Olympics. He also competed in the 200 metres freestyle and 200 metres backstroke events but failed to qualify for the final in each event.
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DEAN, William Henry
Born: 6 February 1887, Moston, Manchester, England
Died: 2 May 1949, Withington, Manchester, England
Olympics competed in: 1 (1920)
Olympic medals: 1920 - Gold (Water polo)
Billy Dean was the nephew of Herbert Dean who many believe drew up the first rules of water polo. At school Billy was an all round sportsman and enjoyed playing football, cricket and hockey and later joined the famous Ancoats Lads' Club.
By then Billy was an accomplished swimmer and at the age of 10 he was awarded the Royal Humane Society medal for diving into a swollen river fully clothed to save a drowning boy,
He won his first national boys swimming title at the age of 14. He served his time as an apprentice electrician but dovetailed his time with playing water polo. He made his England debut in 1907 and represented his country 18 times, captaining them on six occasions.
A member of the Salford Swimming club he also played for Eccles Borough Football Club in 1907-08. In 1909 he moved to Hyde and joined the famous Hyde Seals and helped them to four national water polo titles between 1911 and 1920, establishing a notable goalscoring partnership with fellow 1920 Olympic gold medallist George Wilkinson. Dean later took over the Seals captaincy from Wilkinson.
Dean was also an apprentice goalkeeper at Manchester United for two seasons during his time with the Seals.
Dean only appeared at one Olympics, in 1920, but he was selected for a trial for the 1912 Great Britain team. However, due to a coal strike, the Hyde Baths were closed four days a week and the trials took place in the cold waters of a local reservoir; Dean succumbed to the cold and was not selected to go to Stockholm.
Still playing for England in 1924 he was forced to give up competitive water polo shortly afterwards to concentrate on the business Dean & Noble which he had set up a few years earlier with a partner. The company was iconic in Hyde in the 1920s as the place where you could buy any piece of electrical equipment.
Billy Dean died on the operating theatre at Christie Hospital in Manchester after suffering an acute appendicitis in 1949.
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FORSYTH, Charles Eric
Born: 10 January 1885, Manchester, England
Died: 24 February 1951, Manchester, England
Olympics competed in: 1 (1908)
Olympic medals: 1908 - Gold (Water polo)
A member of the Hyde Seal, and later Salford swimming clubs, Charles Forsyth was both an excellent swimmer and water polo player.
He won the ASA 220 yards title at Burslem in 1904, and took the 500 yards title at Hornsey later in the year. When the Olympics were held in London in 1908 he took part only in the water polo competition, playing as a forward in the gold medal winning team, scoring three goals in the 9-2 win over Belgium in the final.
Forsyth worked as a clerk for the Salford City Council and served with the 1st City Batallion of the Manchester Regiment during the First World War.
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HENRY. William
Born: 28 June 1859, St.Pancras, London, England
Died: 20 March 1928, St.Pancras, London, England
Olympics competed in: 1 (1900)
Olympic medals: 1900 - Gold (Water polo)
Aged 41 at the time, William Henry was in goal for the Osborne Swimming Club of Manchester that won the gold medal at the 1900 Paris Olympics. He was a co-opted member of the Osborne club for the Olympics and was a member of the Life Saving Society at the time. He also swam for the Leander Club in London.
Henry also competed in the 200 metres Obstacle race and finished sixth. He also took part in the 4000 metres freestyle but did not finish. He won a bronze medal at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens in the 4 x 250 metres freestyle relay.
He was the one time honorary secretary of the Royal Life Saving Society.
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HILL, Arthur Edward (some sources say Edwin)
Born: 9 January 1888, Birmingham, England
Died: Not known
Olympics competed in: 1 (1912)
Olympic medals: 1912 - Gold (Water polo)
Arthur Hill was, at 24, the youngest member of the 1912 gold medal winning team. A member of the Aston Swimming Club at the time, Hill was the youngst of eight children of Anna and James Hill, the landlord of the Leopard Inn, Brearley Street, Birmingham. Hill was a silversmith by trade.
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JARVIS, John Arthur
For Biographical details see entry in the swimming section
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JONES, Christopher
Born: 23 June 1884, Penarth, Glamorgan, Wales
Died: 18 December 1937, Penarth, Glamorgan, Wales
Olympics competed in: 1 (1920)
Olympic medals: 1920 - Gold (Water polo)
A Welsh international water polo full-back, Chris Jones played for the successful Weston-super-Mare club, under the captaincy of Paul Radmilovic, who were national champions twice in the 1920s. He was also a member of the gold medal winning Great Britain team at the 1920 Olympics.
Jones was also a good rugby player and played for top Welsh club side Penarth before the outbreak of World War One when he joined the Royal Engineers before moving to the Hampshire Regiment.
After the war he concentrated on building up the family coal merchant business.
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KEMP, Peter
Born: 1878
Died: 1957
Olympics competed in: 1 (1900)
Olympic medals:
1900 - Gold (Water polo)
1900 - Bronze (Swimming - 200 metres obstacle race)
A member of the famous Manchester Osborne Swimming Club, Peter Kemp was a half-back in the 1900 Olympic gold medal winning team.
On the same day that he won his water polo gold medal he also competed in the semi-final of the 200 metres freestyle, but did not qualify for the final. However, on what was a busy day for Kemp, he did qualify for the final of the bizarre 200 metres obstacle race and the very next day he won the bronze medal.
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NEVINSON, George Wilfred
Born: 3 October 1882, Wigan, Lancashire, England
Died: 13 March 1963, Lancaster, England
Olympics competed in: 1 (1908)
Olympic medals: 1908 - Gold (Water polo)
A member of Salford Swimming Club, George Nevinson was a back in the 1908 Great Britain gold medal winning team. Injury kept him out of the 1912 team and shortly afterwards he took up a council job in Lancaster and became a member of the Lancaster Swimming Club.
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PEACOCK, William
Born: 6 December 1891, Poplar, London
Died: 14 December 1948, Sawtry, Cambridgeshire, England
Olympics competed in: 1 (1920)
Olympic medals: 1920 - Gold (Water polo)
Bill Peacock scored Britain's opening goal in their 3-2 win over Belgium in the 1920 Water Polo final.
A member of crack Paisley Swimming Club, who won five consecutive Scottish titles between 1910-14. Peacock was capped 11 times by Scotland and won many Scottish water polo titles. He was selected as a reserve for the 1912 Olympic team but never made the final squad. He was also a non-playing reserve in 1924.
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PURCELL, Noel Mary Joseph
Born: 14 November 1891 Dublin, Ireland
Died: 31 January, 1962, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland
Olympics competed in: 2 (1920, 1924)
Olympic medals: 1920 - Gold (Water polo)
Purcell won four Irish swimming titles between 1911 and 1920, at distances from 220-880 yards and in 1912 he made his Irish water polo debut and played for his country for 18 years. He was a late selection for the Great Britain squad for the 1920 Olympics but he returned with a gold medal.
Four years later, following the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922, Purcell became the first person to officially represent two countries at the Olympics when he captained the Irish team in Paris.
He was also selected for a third Games in 1928 but declined to play, because of pressure of business with his firm of solicitors, and he also wanted to give younger players a chance,
Purcell was an Irish international roller skater, and was also an Irish rugby international and made his debut against England at Twickenham in February 1921. He played in all four matches as a No.9 in that year's Five Nations Championship. He remains the only Irish international rugby player to win an Olympic gold medal.
He later became a rugby referee, and was in charge of the Scotland v England Calcutta Cup game at Edinburgh in 1927. He was a member of the Irish International selection committee from 1939-41.
Purcell attended Belvedere College and Trinity College Dublin, and was to later become the head of a Dublin firm of solicitors. He served as a captain with the Leinster Regiment during the Great War but was injured while serving in France.
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RADMILOVIC, Paulo Francesco "Paul"
Born: 5 March 1886, Cardiff, Wales
Died: 29 September 1968, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
Olympics competed in: 5 (1908, 1912, 1920, 1924, 1928)
Olympic medals:
1908 - Gold (Water polo)
1908 - Gold (Swimming - 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay)
1912 - Gold (Water polo)
1920 - Gold (Water polo)
Paul Radmilovic was the first outstanding British Olympian long before the arrival of modern day heroes like Steven Redgrave and Chris Hoy.
When he competed in the 1928 Olympics at the age of 42, Paul Radmilovic joined wrestler George Mackenzie as being the only two Britons to compete in five Games. The record was not broken until fencer Bill Hoskyns competed in his sixth Olympics in 1976. And "Raddy's" tally of four gold medals was a British record until Steven Redgrave bettered it in 2000.
Welshman Radmilovic actually made his Olympic debut at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens when he took part in four freestyle swimming events, reaching the 100 and 400 metres final but failed to win a medal.
He won his first Olympic gold as part of the British water polo team in 1908 and two days later was part of the 4 x 200 metres freestyle swimming team that also won gold. Radmilovic became the first Welshman to win Olympic gold.
He won a second water polo gold medal in 1912 and in 1920 he scored the winning goal in the closing minutes of the final when Britain beat the Belgian hosts 3-2 to win another gold medal.
Radmilovic won nine ASA titles at distance from 100 yards to five miles during a 30-year swimming career that started as a 15-year old when he made his debut for Wales. He won the ASA one mile title at the age of 40. He also led Weston-super-Mare swimming club to four English water polo titles in 1906, 1907, 1921 and 1925. He also led them to four other losing finals.
Paul Radmilovic's father Antonio was born in 19th century Dubrovnik which was under Austrian rule at the time. He came to Britain and settled in Cardiff where he met his future wife. Radmolivic was born and raised in the Tiger Bay area of the city where his father was the landlord of the Glastonbury Arms. Famous Welsh boxer Jim Driscoll lived over the road from the pub.
Radmilovic, like his father, also went into the licensed trade and later owned various Weston-super-Mare hotels, including the Globe, Railway and Imperial.
An all-round sportsman, Radmilovic was a good footballer, snooker player and as a keen golfer he became captain of the Worlebury Golf Club in Weston-super-Mare, and in the early 1930s he twice played in the English amateur championship.
In 1967, the year before his death, Radmilovic became the first British water polo player to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Paul Radmilovic is immortalized in Weston-super-Mare by Raddys Bar and Restaurant which was named in his honour.
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SMITH, Charles Sydney
Born: 26 January 1879, Worsley Meynes, near Wigan, Lancashire, England
Died: 6 April 1951, Southport, Lancashire, England
Olympics competed in: 4 (1908, 1912, 1920, 1924)
Olympic medals:
1908 - Gold (Water polo)
1912 - Gold (Water polo)
1920 - Gold (Water polo)
Smith was the goalkeeper and captain of the 1908 gold medal winning team. He won second and third gold medals in 1912 and 1920 but could not add to his medal collection at Paris in 1924 when at the age of 45 he was the oldest member of the British squad, just as he had been four years earlier. When he won gold in 1920 he was, at the age of 41 years and nine months, the oldest ever water polo gold medallist.
Smith was the goalkeeper for the national team from 1902 to 1926, and at club level he served both Salford and Southport Swimming Clubs and he had the honour of being the flag bearer of the British team at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, the first time a competing athlete had carried the flag for Great Britain. In 1981 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
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STAPLETON, Frederick
Born: 11 March 1877, Basford, Nottinghamshire. England
Died: 9 November 1939, Nottingham, England
Olympics competed in: 1 (1900)
Olympic medals: 1900 - Gold (Water polo)
Fred Stapleton was a co-opted member of the Osborne Swimming Club for the 1900 Paris Olympics. He was one of the forwards in the team that won the gold medal.
He also competed in the 200 metres Obstacle race and finished fifth and in the 200 metres freestyle in which he came sixth.
Hailing from Nottingham, Stapleton was a lace maufacturer, an industry for which the city is famous.
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THOULD, Thomas Henry
Born: 11 January 1886, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
Died: 15 June 1971, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
Olympics competed in: 1 (1908)
Olympic medals: 1908 - Gold (Water polo)
Along with Great Britain team-mate Paul Radmilovic, Tommy Thould was a member the Weston-super-Mare Swimming Club that won the national water polo title four times between 1906 and 1925. The pair of them both won Olympic gold in 1908 when Thould was half-back in the team that beat Belgium 9-2 in the final at the White City stadium.
The son of a boarding house keeper Thould worked as an accounts clerk and spent most of his life in Weston-super-Mare apart from time during World War One when he served with the Royal Engineers when he was awarded the Victory, 1914-15 Star and British War medals.
Thould's father, also Thomas Henry, was involved with the Weston Swimming Club and in 1926 he became president of the Somerset Amateur Swimming Association.
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WILKINSON, George
Born: 3 March 1879, Gorton, Manchester, Lancashire, England
Died: 7 August 1946, Hyde, Manchester, Lancashire
Olympics competed in: 2 (1908, 1912)
Olympic medals:
1908 - Gold (Water Polo)
1912 - Gold (Water Polo)
Some sources state that Wilkinson was a member of the 1900 gold medal winning team. He was originally called up for the squad but at the time of the Olympics he was playing in another tournament, away from Paris.
George Wilkinson was regarded the finest water polo player at turn of the 20th century and the first truly great exponent of the sport.
In 1899 he was playing in the third division of the Manchester League but a year later he was recruited by Manchester Osborne and was in their squad for the 1900 Paris Olympics (see above).
Having been a member of the Osborne side that won the national championship in 1901, he moved to the Hyde Seal team and was instrumental in inflicting the first defeat on Osborne Swimming Club in seven years. He would captain the Hyde Club for 22 years, winning nine national titles and three world titles under his leadership.
He won Olympic gold on home soil in 1908, scoring four goals in the 9-2 demolition of Belgium in the final, and a second gold followed in Stockholm in 1912 when Wilkinson captained the British team.
He was a reserve for the 1920 and 1924 Olympic teams but never played. In total, he won 24 England caps between 1900-22 and was captain on four occasions.
After his retirement, Wilkinson ran several pubs in the Manchester area, including the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Hyde. In 1980 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale.
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