I am often surprised when friends my age tell me they can't swim. I thought that everyone of my generation was taught to swim at school as a matter of course.
Even though Leeds is quite far from the coast, the Leeds Education Authority made a significant effort to ensure that we were taught to swim. Despite the challenges of post-war austerity in the 1950s, my class of 40 baby boomers at Brownhill Junior School in Harehills,was bussed weekly to the Victorian Holbeck Baths for swimming lessons. Leeds was well provided with public baths and by aged 8 or 9, I had also been taken swimming to Cookridge Street Baths and the Roundhay Open-Air Pool, or Lido. By the time I left junior school, I could swim confidently. I was also quite tolerant of chlorine, as the water was heavily chlorinated in those days.

Armley Baths

West Leeds school didn't have the luxury of its own swimming pool. The nearest swimming pool was Armley Baths which was built in the 1930s and was used by the school. We didn't have a bus to take us to the pool, so we had to walk there in a straggling line along a footpath that followed the railway line and passed Canal Road station. It was also used as the venue for the school's annual swimming gala. At WLBHS, our PE teacher, Stan Wilson, was very enthusiastic about swimming and organized after-school sessions, at Armley Baths on Fridays, where he coached students to compete in swimming events and water polo. He had a personal goal: that no student should leave the school without being able to swim. These days I suppose we would call it a "mission statement".

Swimming team photos: 1953 , 1966

Stan Wilson, Head of PE was also a fanatic for swimming. It was his contract that all boys who left the school would be able to swim. And they could. He also ran a successful competitive team. I was his assistant coach and, thanks to his encouragement, became a qualified ASA Teacher of Swimming and an RLSS Teacher of Life-saving. He also encouraged me to keep fit by training one evening a week with the highly successful Old Boys' Rugby Club (Yorkshire Cup in 1957 - in spite of my presence at their training sessions !)

One nice anecdote. Before I was to take my first session at Armley baths, Stan reminded me to take my gear although he had always insisted that you taught/coached from the poolside in order to see what was happening. He explained that, after he finished his very first coaching session and was passing the poolside changing cubicles, he heard a voice say loudly " I bet the bugger can't even swim !" So, first session, strip off, best racing dive, fast length and out. And it worked! - Brian Palmer

I am grateful to LEA and Stan for helping me become a confident swimmer. I have always been a bit of a "water baby," enjoying snorkelling during holidays for many years and once, unforgettably, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.
The strong swimming tradition at WLHS continued after my departure. The role of swim coach was taken over by Terry Dennison, a history teacher and old boy of the school ,who not only coached the school's rugby team but also became a full-time swimming coach at the City of Leeds club. He eventually became a national Olympic coach and trained several Olympic swimmers, including Adrian Moorhouse.

Life saving

In fact, Stan went above and beyond by coaching us all in lifesaving at Armley Baths. As far as I know, everyone in my class obtained an Intermediate Lifesaving Certificate. This qualification required us to swim one or two lengths of the pool while fully clothed (in our pyjamas), rescue a rubber brick from the deep end, and then tow the casualty to the poolside. We were also instructed in the Holger Nielsen method of resuscitation.

Fortunately, I never had to put this lifesaving skill to the test, but I came very close to using it once. I was on a cycling trip with a schoolmate, Vic Ellis, on our way back from Skipton. While consulting the OS map, we noticed that we could take a shortcut by riding along a nice, straight section of the Leeds-Liverpool canal towpath rather than dealing with a winding A road. Vic was riding ahead of me when his front wheel hit a rut. I watched in disbelief as he braked and was launched over the handlebars in a graceful arc into the canal, with the bike following close behind him. It was a perfect demonstration of Newton's First Law of motion. Everything seemed to unfold in slow motion for me. By the time I reached the spot, there was no sign of Vic or his bike-just the circle of ripples where he had entered the water. I was about to put my training into practice by taking off my shoes prior to diving in and looking for the line of bubbles that would lead me to him. Fortunately for both of us , Vic resurfaced and blew a jet of water from his mouth, so thankfully, no resuscitation was needed. Luckily, the back reflector of the bike was still partially visible near the canal bank, and we were able to fish it out, and complete the cycle ride back home which took a couple of hours including the ascent of Pool Bank.