Introduction
History of KCSBCRegatta LocationsKCSBC Roll Of HonourLinks
King’s College School was founded by Royal Charter on 14th August 1829 as the junior department of the newly established King’s College of the University of London. The origin of rowing at King’s is difficult to trace, as organised games were a comparatively late Victorian concept, arrangements being, up to this point, on a very casual basis. The first mention of the ‘Boating Club’ was in the school magazine in 1864. Lack of funds seriously curtailed its activities, although an Old Boy, Leopold de Rothschild, did become a generous patron for a while.
The most recent boost to the Rowing Club has been the purchase of the Boathouse from Barclays Bank in 1993
Prior to this the Club had shared a boat bay at Kingston Rowing Club. This move to one of the prime boathouses on the Tideway has enabled the Club to more than double its membership, and extend rowing to boys in the Junior School. It has also meant that a small number of Old Boys have been able to row with us on occasions, and more recently Godolphin & Latymer (click to transfer to their rowing site) have also had an opportunity to row.
The Boat Club has enjoyed outstanding success in the last few years, particularly in the younger age groups. Since 1989 King’s has won more than 17 Gold, 6 Silver and 9 Bronze medals at the National Schools’ Regatta. The club is still relatively small compared to the large boarding schools like Eton and Radley, but particularly since victory in the 1st 8s in 2004, KCSBC has grown not only in size but also in terms of performance.
King’s 1st 8 aims to compete at the Henley Royal Regatta for the Princess Elizabeth Cup every year, and have reached Thursday in both 2004 & 2005 (shown above). The 2nd 8 now attends the qualification stages for the Temple Cup.
The KCS boathouse is used by Cambridge University Boatclub each year as their base for preparing for the Boat Race. This gives great benefit to our crews. Not only do they get a chance to observe at close quarters some of the best rowers in the country both during training and at the Boat Race, but they also form a special relationship with Cambridge University BC.
There have been fifteen rowing Blues won by Old Boys, eleven for Cambridge and four for Oxford. These have included Thomas Lewis, who was President of the Cambridge crew when the only dead heat was recorded, in 1877. The most recent have been Guy Blanchard who rowed in the successful 1990 Oxford crew, and Russell Slatford who coxed the winning Cambridge boat in 1995. Doug Perrin has been president of the Cambridge Lightweights and rowed for Great Britain at U23 level.
Dinner Speakers & Visitors
The success of rowing at King’s over the last few years has meant that we have been also able to attract top celebrities to our Annual Dinner and Boat-Naming Ceremonies:
Steve Redgrave, Peter Haining and the Cambridge President came in 1996.
Mathew Pinsent, Andy Ripley and the Oxford President in 1997.
Greg Searle and the Cambridge President in 1998.
Martin Cross - in 1999
Tim Foster and James Cracknell - in 2000
Martin MacElroy – coach to the 2000 Olympic GB Gold Medal Men’s eight – in 2001
Garry Herbert – who won Olympic Gold at the Barcelona Olympics in 1996 as Cox in the Pair with Greg and Jonny Searle - in 2001
Sir Steve Redgrave spoke again in 2002
Greg Searle spoke again in 2004
Katherine Grainger spoke in 2005
Sir Matthew Pinsent spoke in 2006
