My original Captain Webb Book  is signed inside the first page. Philip John Vaughau-1877.

The Book was bought from Christopher Eimer.

In late September, Randall's book, Captain Webb, The Intrepid Champion Channel Swimmer, was published, reinforcing the image of the plucky, modest young Englishman, inspired by Christian virtues and a love of his country. The book's subtitle, 'containing original particulars of his life supplied by his friends made its depiction of Webb seem true to life.

Webb's own book, The Art of Swimming, 111 pages, priced 2s 6d, with a blue cover and gold writing and a picture of Webb, the Stanhope medal on his chest, looking off to the right, also came out in the autumn. On the front it said: 'Edited by A. G. Payne' in small letters, but he was in fact the real author. We have no idea how much input Webb had into the book; it's possible he just lent his name to it and let his ghost writer do all the work, but he always stood by it, calling it 'one of the best' accounts of his 

The copy  Log of the swim was sent to me by the Long Distance Swimming Ass.1875-1975.

The reverse of the Webb plate. COALPORT A.D.1760.  Made for Mrs H.S.Jones Dawley August 1909 Cost £80.00 from G.A.GAZE Auction.

Swimming Development Captain Webb has achieved a vast ocean of good by giving an impulse to swimming throughout the country: wrote the New York Times. 3 October 1875. The London baths arc crowded; each village pond and running stream contains youthful worshipers at the shrine of Webb, and even along the banks of the river, regardless of the terrors of the Thames police, swarms of naked urchins ply their limbs, each probably determining that he one day will be another Captain Webb.' Bathing in sea and fresh water (less polluted than today) had long been popular; but Captain Webb's swim acted as a catalyst to the formal development of swimming as a sport. The organisation of swimming teaching began in the 1870's. 232 baths were built in Britain in the nineteenth century. The unchlorinated water was usually changed once a week and the temperature was 22°C (72°F). A bath for ladies was built in Paris in 1820, but it was 40 years before London followed suit. 

From the book "Captain Webb and 100 Years of Channel Swimming"

9ct gold medal of Captain Webb dated 1913.To be researched. Reverse- Willesden .Webb Memorial Trophy.1913 1st Prize.

 This Gold Medal was bought from Christopher Eimer for £120.00 in 2000.

 Gold  Medal Designer:

WILLESDEN CHRONICLE

09 SEPTEMBER 1910

LOCAL NEWS SUMMARY. Willesden Schools’ Swimming Gala. SUCCESSFUL FUNCTION AT GLADSTONE PARK BATHS. Fine weather prevailing, and an excellent sports programme having been arranged, the seventh annual swimming gala in connection with the Willesden Schools’ Athletic Association, held on Saturday afternoon at the Gladstone Park Bath, proved an unqualified success. The various sporting events were closely contested and programme was interspersed with several amusing and instructive items. For instance, the large audience that assembled on the slopes, circling the bath, had the pleasure of seeing Jabez Wolffe, the famous Channel swimmer, enter the water in full Channel array and give example of his masterly stroke. Did the crowd seek sheer amusement they had it in ye old English tilting match, in which the participants wore fantastic costumes and tilted at each other in the most frolicsome manner from small boats. Later the Hendon Swimming Club engaged the Broomfield Park Club in water polo match. Then there was more fun when the “Pentagonals,” in costume, pushed each other into the water from the central stage. At intervals in this varied programme the School Championships were decided, but perhaps the most important event was the open half-mile championship of Willesden for the Webb Memorial Shield. The trophy has been presented by Mr. Alfred Jonas, hon. secretary of the National Webb Memorial Fund, and the contestants have to swim breast stroke as Webb swam the Channel. The result of the race was easy victory for H. K. Bretton, of the Priory Swimming Club, who thus holds the shield for a year and receives the special gold medal in commemoration of his victory. 

 Research from Dover Museum.

An extract from the web on Captain Webb and Robert Watson

From "The Complete Swimmer" by Frank Sachs:

CHANNEL SWIMMING (Page 207)

Captain Webb's second attempt on August 24th and 25th, 1875, and took 21 hours 45 minutes.

 T. W. Burgess succeeded on September 2nd and 3rd, 1911, and the duration of his swim was 22 hours 35 minutes. It was his sixteenth try. 

Turn to the interesting pages of Mr R. P. Watson's "Memoirs," because he was intimately associated with all the prominent swimmers of twenty to forty years ago, and for that matter, with fighters, boxers, runners, and sporting characters of all degrees. It was Mr Watson whom Webb first approached with reference to a swim in the Thames, and it was in his presence, accompanied by "professor " Beckwith, that Webb made his first long journey. Here are Mr Watson's own words :—

"On the September 22nd, 1874, Matthew Webb swam his first trial witnessed only by Professor Beckwith, myself, and the man who rowed the boat. He plunged in immediately under the arch of Westminster Bridge and swam to regent's Canal Docks in 1 hour 20 minutes—distance nearly six miles—finishing as fresh as when he started. The man surprised us, not altogether on account of what he had done as the easy way it was accomplished, not forgetting the extreme likelihood of three times the distance being swam, if necessary, quite as easily and with just the same amount of refreshing indifference. We grew tired of watching Webb's slow, 

Captain Webb's Matches.

There are other monuments, one on the seafront in Dover and one in a depressing little shopping precinct in his home town of Dawley. The Dawley one bears the inscription: 'Nothing great is easy.' George Toms was so proud of piloting Webb across the Channel that the fact is recorded on his tombstone. There are other quirkier memorials. For 86 years Webb appeared on matchboxes, standing there in his bathing suit, hand jauntily on his hip, commemorated every time a customer asked for 'a box of Webb, please'. He's had streets named after him — there is still a Webb Crescent in Dawley — and public houses. One, opened 30 years ago, employed the world's worst copywriter to advertise itself: