Gwen Moffat
Brighton’s first female mountain guide, followed by a career as a successful author.
Category Archives: Sports
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Mercedes Gleitze
On 6 April 1928, this pioneering female swimmer became the first person to swim the 8 mile Straits of Gibraltar.
Joyce Cooper
Joyce Cooper remains to this day one of the most decorated female swimmers Britain has ever produced.
Katie-George Dunlevy
Katie-George Dunlevy (b1981) is a high scoring paralympic road and track cyclist, best known for winning gold and silver medals with pilot Eve Crystal at the Rio Paralympics in 2016.
Harriet Elphinstone-Dick
On the 9 September 1875, in rough open water Harriet Elphinstone-Dick swam seven miles from Shoreham Harbour to Brighton’s West Pier. She completed the distance in a record making 2 hours and 45 minutes. It was regarded as one of the greatest swimming feats of the time.
Dorothy Levitt
Dubbed ‘the Fastest Girl on Earth’, Dorothy Levitt was an early motorist who competed in speed trials and long distance races, setting the Ladies World Speed record in the Brighton Speed Trials of 1905, by driving her Napier racing car at 79.75 mph.
Mary Hankinson
A founder member of the Fabian Women’s group, suffragist and gymnastics teacher, she was president of the Gymnastics Teachers Suffrage Society.
Galina Bystrova
Soviet track and field athlete Galina Petrovna Bystrova won a bronze medal at the 1964 Olympics in the pentathlon.
Constance Abraham
Community and church leader in Palmerston North (New Zealand) for many years
Dorothy Michaelis Theomin
New Zealand philanthropist