Club history
Dr Frederick James Furnivall
The club was founded in April 1896 by Dr Frederick James Furnivall (1825 – 1910). Having learnt to row in his teens rowing became a lifelong obsession for Dr. Furnivall. He sculled regularly. At the age of 20, together with a local waterman, he designed a new sculling boat, narrow in the beam and equipped with newfangled out riggers.
In 1891 when the Amateur Rowing Association refused to accept working men as ‘amateurs’, Furnivall founded the National Amateur Rowing Association (NARA) which anyone could join. Given his passionate opposition to discrimination, he wanted to break into the man's world of river sport, by building a club for women. In 1896 he founded the 'Hammersith Sculling Club for girls and men’ with restrictions on membership for men. In 1901, men were admitted to full membership, and the name was changed to 'Furnivall Sculling Club for Girls and Men'. However, at least until after the 2nd World War the captaincy was restricted to female members in honour of the original purpose of Dr Furnivall in founding the Club. Furnivall continued to row regularly every Sunday to Richmond and back, a habit he maintained almost to the day he died at 85. Following his death in 1910, the Club honoured his memory by celebrating 'The Doctor's Birthday' for many years.
The Club has gone through high and low points over the 110 years of its existence, but its long term stability and the maintenance of Dr Furnivall's vision for women's sculling have remained constant.
Dr Furnivall was true to the Victorian age. Not only did he found the club when he was a young 71 but he was also the ultimate enthuiast, passionate about social justice and personal health. He never smoked or drank and, unusually for the age, became a vegetarian. In 1849 he opened a school for poor men and boys. In 1851 he sold his book collection so as to give £100 to support striking woodcutters. The following year he helped establish the Working Men’s Association. But it was his literary work that attracted national attention. In 1861 he started work on a dictionary which finally saw the light of day as The Oxford English Dictionary. Fortunately the task was taken out of his hands as he was diverted by new pursuits, founding in 1864 the Early English Texts Society, in 1886 the Chaucer Society, in 1873 the Ballad Society and also the New Shakespeare Society, in 1881 the Wicliff Society, and in 1886 the Browning Society and the Shelly Society. In his spare time he became the leading expert in his day on Chaucer. Kenneth Grahame modelled Ratty on him in the Wind in the Willows. Dr Furnivall was a remarkable Victorian!
Extracted from The Walkers Guide to the Thames from Richmond to Putney Bridge by David McDowall, www.davidmcdowall.com.
