1 Jabez Wolffe was the son of a Kelvinbridge watchmaker, an international celebrity more than 100 years ago - and possibly the unluckiest swimmer in the world. Born in the city in 1876, he became a champion swimmer with more than 10 marathon records to his name, but he was obsessed with becoming the second man to swim the channel (after Captain Webb in 1875).
2 A member of the Glasgow Dolphin Swimming Club, Jabez made his first attempt on July 23, 1907. Our sister newspaper the then Glasgow Herald reported: “He took water at 10.46. The sea was smooth, there was practically no wind…A Calais boat brought news that at 3pm he was seven or eight miles out and going well with his over-arm stroke. A later telegram says that Wolffe had to abandon his attempt owing to his leg giving out. He said he was resigned to his fate and would not make another attempt.” In fact, he did try again, 21 times, but he never succeeded.
3 In 2017, Jabez’s relative Giles Croft turned his distant cousin’s story of determination and terribly bad luck into a play, which was performed at Oran Mor. “His story is slightly comic, rather Ealing-esque,” said Giles at the time. “Once while swimming a shark jumped out of the water and landed on his back. And another time he was hit with a plank of wood. During another attempt he was surrounded by jellyfish and had to be hauled out of the water.” Once, he was just yards from the beach when he had to give up. After his 21st attempt, in 1914, the Daily Mail wrote the headline ‘Nobody Cares’.
READ MORE: The story of the Glasgow shop famous for its golden spinning wheel
4 Jabez gave up in 1914 when war broke out. He served as a Lieutenant and PE Instructor, was wounded in 1916 and repatriated home.”
5 He went on to become a successful coach, teaching women to swim, including Hilda Sharp, Peggy Duncan and Sunny Lowry, who all went on to swim the channel…
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel