Sunny Lowry

Feb 26 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

AFTER devouring an eight-omelette breakfast and smearing her body with lanolin and chilli paste, the great swimmer might have considered for a moment her second cousin, LS Lowry, then establishing his reputation as the painter of matchstick people.

Had she been a matchstick girl, Sunny Lowry would have caused rather less eyebrow-raising and fluttering among commentators, when she wore a prototype bikini to swim the Channel, instead of the heavy-duty woollen costumes, favoured hitherto.

But Sunny found that these costumes chafed her neck and shoulders. So it was a strapping girl, deeply proud of her northern English background and demanding diet, who stepped ashore at St Margaret’s beach, near Folkestone, on August 28, 1933, having left Cap Gris Nez, France, 15 hours and 41 minutes before – thus becoming the 18th person to swim the Channel.

A crowd saluted the bravery of the 22-year-old, particularly after seeing her skin was sorely blistered with stings from a shoal of jellyfish encountered on the way. There to greet her was a jubilant Jabez Wolffe, her coach, who had himself failed on 22 Channel attempts.

In later life, Sunny would help disabled children swim at Warrington baths. She was appointed MBE in 2006 for this work, as well as the Channel swims, which led to her serving for seven years as the Channel Swimming Association’s president.

Ethel “Sunny” Lowry was born to a Manchester fish wholesaler, who encouraged her swimming, though the headmistress at Manchester High School for Girls was less enthusiastic – barking “dismissed” during a careers’ interview at which Sunny expressed her ambition to swim the Channel.

Her potential was spotted at local baths, Lake Windermere and North Wales, where she once swam from near the family’s holiday cottage in Rhos-on-Sea to Colwyn Bay.

With biceps and calves of 16 inches, Sunny’s strength was bolstered by the consumption of 40 eggs a week. But she twice failed with Channel attempts, one of which almost resulted in her drowning, before the triumph over the 21 miles.

Sunny married the late Bill Anderson, a swimming teacher, with whom she started the Pilot Life Saving Scheme. They settled in Warrington and had a daughter, who also predeceased her.

Sunny swam into her 90s and her famous two-piece costume is in the Cross Channel Museum, Dover.

Sunny Lowry, swimmer; born January 2, 1911, died February 20, 2008.