History of Dover Rowing Club

Famous Names

SIR RICHARD DICKESON 1823 - 1900

Dickeson was very much the father of Dover Rowing Club and was its president from 1872 until his death in 1900.

He was born in Rochester but came to Dover in the 1840s to take over a wholesale grocers in Market Lane. The business grew into a massive commercial empire. He won the contract to supply the British Army and was soon operating over 100 regimental grocery stores as well as being the sole agent to the War Office for pipeclay (blanco). He opened new warehouses in London, Aldershot, Dublin, Plymouth Pretoria and Gibraltar.

Dickeson was Mayor of Dover in 1871, 1880, 1881 and 1883 overseeing the building of Connaught Hall in his last mayoralty, and was knighted in 1884 for his public service. He also held the presidencies of the Chamber of Commerce, the Dover Orphan Home for Girls, Dover Hospital and Dover Cycling Club, and was Chairman of the Dover Promenade Pier and the Dover Regatta Committee, but it was Dover Rowing Club that was his greatest interest.

From 1888 his business demanded that he spent more and more of his time in London and it was at the Grand Hotel, in London that he died on the 13th October, 1900. His body was sent to Dover where he lay on public view in the Council Chamber before being buried at St. James' Cemetery. All shops and businesses closed for the funeral. Soldiers of the Buffs and the Cinque Port Volunteers lined the funeral route five paces apart and a crowd of thousands watched the funeral cortege of over 50 mourners' carriages accompany the coffin to the cemetery.

ARTHUR HARBY 1862 - 1900

1900 was a bad year for Dover Rowing Club. As well as losing their President they had also lost the club captain earlier in the year.

Harby came to Dover in about 1880 as an Articled Clerk to solicitor James Stillwell. He was made a partner in 1888, married Stilwell's daughter in 1897 and became sole partner when Stilwell, died in 1898. The firm of Stilwell and Harby are still Dover solicitors today.

He joined Dover Rowing Club when he came to the town and was a successful Junior Sculler and one of the Senior Fours in the 1880s. He was made a club captain in 1895.

He was also a Major in the Cinque Port Volunteers and it was when he was inspecting the troops at Sandwich on 3rd July 1900 that he was thrown from his horse and killed.

EDWARD LUKEY

Lukeys the wholesale and retail wine and spirit merchants were another big business. Founded by John Lukey in 1835, the last of the Lukey off-licences only disappeared a few years ago.

John's son Edward was, with Dickeson, instrumental in transforming the Rowing Club from a pleasure club to the premier racing team it became in the 1890s. He rowed successfully for the club in the 1870s and was a very influential club captain from 1879 until 1895. He was also a local councillor and became Mayor of Dover in 1889.

In 1894 he undertook a major venture, building the County Hotel in Canterbury High Street and the following year moved to the city to devote all his time to the new project, resigning as the club captain. The club presented him with the Newhaven Cup which they had won outright that year. His hotel is still one of the best in Canterbury.

Tragedy of the High Seas

On the early evening of May 21st 1888, two members of Dover Rowing Club took the pair-oared racing skiff, 'Louisa Norgrove' from the clubhouse to row around to St. Margaret's Bay.

The two rowers were Harry Finnis and George Took. They were 19 years old and had been members of the Dover Athletic Club and the Dover Swimming Club for some years. They had joined the rowing club just 18 months earlier but had quickly been selected for the second Junior Fours crew and had won the 1887 Jubilee Pairs race in the 'Louisa Norgrove'.

The two rowers quickly reached St. Margaret's, beached the skiff and went into the 'Green Man' inn on the beach to warm themselves. About 10 minutes later they climbed back into their boat and set off for home. They never reached Dover, disappearing on the return journey.

The next morning the 'Louisa Norgrove' was found floating upside down off Dover but it was not until 3 weeks later that their bodies were found off Langdon Cliff by two different fishing boats within half an hour of each other. The bodies were badly decomposed but both still had their rowing strips on.

At the inquest, the Coroner was perplexed as to why two strong swimmers had drowned in calm seas a few hundred feet from shore. One theory he proposed was that the two boys had rowed across lobster lines, entangling the boat and themselves.

Finnis and Took were buried together at St. Mary's Copt Hill Cemetery in Dover. The funeral cortege proceeded through streets lined with people to the cemetery where fifty members of the Rowing Club formed an honour guard either side of the gates.

A remarkably similar accident happened on March 19th, 1896 when three men sailing in a punt back from St Margaret's Bay to Dover capsized 100 feet off Langdon Cliff. The non-swimmer clung to the boat but the other two, Betts and Cox, drowned almost immediately despite both being members of the Dover Swimming Club. Betts was also a long-standing member of the Dover Rowing Club and had been Cox for the racing crews. The survivor had no idea why the boat capsized or whey the two men drowned.

Both these tragedies are echoed in the death in 1990 of Roger Cuff, Captain of Dover Rowing Club from 1963 to 1977, and its chairman from 1986. An excellent rower and strong swimmer, Cuff inexplicably drowned while swimming at the beach in Lanzarote while on holiday.


Roger Cuff 1939 - 1990

1959 June - Member
1961 February - Committee Member
1963 May - Joint Club Captain (with Albert Banks)
1964 February - Club Captain
1968 April - Assistant Treasurer
1971 - C.A.R.A. President
1974 - Member ARA Executive Council & Institutional Committee
- ARA Coaching Silver Award
1975 - Hon Treasurer & Club Coach
1977 - Retired as Club Captain
1986 - Retired as Hon Treasurer
- Became Club Chairman
1990 - Died tragically in Sea off Lanzarotte
Posthumously awarded the ARA Medal of Merit.
South Coast Pairs Champions (with Andy Ratcliffe).
Member of SERC.