Winning after World War II: Tony Purssell recounts his Henley Royal Regatta victory
80 years later, hear from The Grand Challenge Cup winner as he reflects on what happened in 1946
Credit: Henley Royal Regatta
A crew of Leander Club athletes battling for The Grand Challenge Cup is a tale as old as Henley Royal Regatta. This year, however, marked a very special anniversary for Anthony (Tony) Purssell, who last lifted the Cup in 1946.
“Henley’s changed so much since my time. Because you’ve got to remember; we had food rationing and clothes rationing and all sorts of things.”
When Tony and his crew lined up against a Swiss crew from Zurich in 1946, he was racing against athletes who hadn’t faced food rationing during the Second World War. Not yet a year over, the Leander rowers were still suffering the ill-effects of a country wounded by war.
“One of our crew had been a prisoner of war since Dunkirk, which was remarkable.” Tony’s crew was mainly university students. “Four of us were from Oxford University – there were four others of us who were heavier.”
Against all odds, Tony’s crew took the crown and title, winning by a nail-biting ¾ length.
When asked if Tony remembered crossing the line, he laughed. “No.” But he did remember receiving The Grand Challenge Cup from Queen Elizabeth II (then Princess Elizabeth). “We had to queue up for that, so I remembered it. But I was very naive. I suppose I was twenty, wasn’t I?”
Tony doesn’t have a favourite Henley Royal Regatta memory per se. “They’re favourites when you win,” he says. “But it’s always something special.”
Tony went on to represent GB at the 1948 Olympics in the coxed four but 80 years later, its Henley Royal Regatta still has a hold on him. “People come here, you see your friends. And now, I’m not rowing. But the rowing makes all of this possible.”
In 2026, on Sunday, 5 July, The Grand Challenge Cup will be contested between the British and Italian national men’s eights. History repeats itself as Oxford University alumni Harry Geffen, representing Leander, will line up at the start of the iconic course, listening for the immortalised words ‘attention, go!’
Sunday will be Tony Purssell’s 100th birthday.
