Gordon reached out to us after he received our call out to all OL swimmers, and although his swimming days are now over, he recalled his passion as a child:

"In my younger days at my Prep School around 1951 I was asked if I could beat the record set up  by Bruce Flemming, a fellow student, of 40 lengths of the Redhill Swimming Pool. This I did with the utmost ease and completed 42 lengths. I could have done a hundred. I found it so easy. The attendant watched me and asked me if I wanted to swim The Channel. "Dont ever start smoking" he said to me and I never did. I am now nearly 87 and never did get round to swimming The Channel. The memory however lingers on. I once won the medlay relay race at the Lower School of John Lyon with my brother. I ended up having to swim two legs; I would have won the freestyle as well but hit my head on the pool bottom when I dived in."

Gordon ended his email with wishing our pupils and fellow OLs the best of luck.