An Englishman Abroad:
Professor Christopher Butterworth
Part One.

Willie Beckwith observed in 1883 that no American swimmer of the time would be able to compete against any decent amateur or professional British swimmer,^[1] but the next twenty years witnessed a complete turnaround to the extent that America had become the leading swimming nation by 1905. Competitive meets organized by the New York Athletic Club had started in 1877 and the national swimming scene was initially domi­nated by similar urban, private-membership, wealthy athletic clubs, most of them engaging a professional swimming coach.[2] Swimming subsequently became an important sport in educational settings, thereby increasing employment possibilities for coaches, and several English swimming professors arrived in the country to pursue their coaching careers after they had been actively marginalised by the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).

The Cavill Family

Frederick Cavill’s family were integral to the development of the sport in Australia and America. After twice failing to swim the Channel Frederick moved to Australia in 1879, establishing baths at Lavender Bay in Sydney where he made a reasonable living (Figure 1). As proprietor of the Farm Cove Baths in 1899, his revenue was reportedly £600 per annum, which represented a yearly patronage of around 48,000 individuals at 3d per head.[3]

The professor also trained competitive swimmers, especially from within his own family, and in the tradition of the sharing and developing of craft knowledge, the front crawl stroke emerged from their observation of local practices and a willingness to experiment and innovate in pursuit of competitive success.[4] Cavill’s sons transported the stroke to America when they took appointments as coaches. Sydney Cavill spent over twenty years as instructor at the San Francisco Olympic Club from 1899, where he coached several champions at national and Olympic levels, Arthur held a series of instructor and lifesaving positions on the West Coast from 1902 until his death in 1914, and Dick became director of swimming for the New Zealand Department of Education in 1905 before taking up coaching positions with Chicago and Pittsburgh athletic clubs.[5] Percy Cavill moved to the United States in 1900 at the age of 25 and was engaged as a swimming instructor in Miami before moving to the Bahamas and he has been credited with mentoring a number of influential swimming teachers and coaches.[6]

Charles Holroyd

Other English emigrees left their mark on American college swimming. Charles Holroyd was born in Bradford, England, circa 1861, but his naturalization application in 1899 stated that the 39-year-old had entered America on 16 March 1889, and been living in New York since then.[7] Holroyd was considered to have been the first swimming teacher in Philadelphia to teach and develop advanced swimming and racing strokes and he became coach and adviser to the Philadelphia swimming club in 1892. Columbia University of New York was the first educational institution to make swimming a part of the college curriculum and Holroyd was appointed instructor in 1898, remaining there until 1905. While at Columbia, he developed many inter-collegiate champions and, in creating Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and intercollegiate competitive events, he was ‘one of the foremost factors’ in making swimming a leading amateur sport. Charles had also overseen the organisation of the amateur swimming events at the St Louis Olympics in 1904. After leaving Columbia in 1905, he was involved with the Normal School of Physical Education in New York for a year before going to Waltham where he and his wife Mary took charge of the swimming course in the physical education department at Wellesley College.[8]

Holroyd subsequently left for Pittsburgh to begin a stint as swimming instructor in the city’s public schools having been recruited, as one of the ‘best swimming teachers in this country’, to carry on the work of educational swimming recently inaugurated in the West.[9] In the 1920 USA census for Pittsburgh City, Charles (63) was recorded as a teacher, teaching swimming in schools, and in 1929 the Pittsburgh directory shows him as a swim teacher at the Frick Training School with wife Mary recorded as a teacher at Westinghouse High School. The 1930 USA census for Pittsburgh City described Charles as a teacher in the public schools, after which he retired and returned to England where he died in Leeds on 5 June 1935 leaving £504 0s 3d.[10]

George Kistler

A contemporary of Holroyd, Cornish swimmer George Kistler, left England in 1893 for America, where his subsequent career as a swimming professor and coach incorporated many of the traditional elements of the swimming professor’s working life (Figure 2).[11] His early days in America were marked by racing, endurance swims, exhibitions, taking benefits, and constant self-promotion, ‘puffing up’ as it was called.[12] While these activities replicated many of the standard practices of English swimming professors, the swimming structures that emerged in America during the latter part of the nineteenth century afforded Kistler a range of other opportunities. In particular, the recognition of the professional as an essential part of competitive preparation, especially in the colleges, enabled him to make the transition from swimming professor to swimming coach and this was reflected in the terminology that was employed to describe him. Although the 1900, 1910, and 1920 censuses describe him as a swimming ‘instructor’ employed by a college, as do his application for naturalization in 1911 and his passport applications in 1917 and 1918, he was increasingly referred to as ‘Coach Kistler’ in newspaper reports.[13]

In 1896, Kistler became a swimming instructor at the Wayne Natatorium, before being taken on at the University of Pennsylvania through the university’s Houston Club, a student-run organization independent from the university authorities.[14] Alongside his instructional duties with the generic student population, George assumed coaching responsibilities for representative swimmers and the water polo team.[15] By organizing a number of ‘meets’ to which he invited other universities to participate, Kistler could justifiably claim to have inaugurated inter-collegiate swimming in America and in March 1905, the first championship of the intercollegiate swimming association was won by Pennsylvania, with Columbia, under Charles Holroyd, second, and Yale third. By 1908, the intercollegiate swimming association had expanded to include Princeton, Yale, Harvard and Brown, the City College of New York, and the universities of Chicago, Missouri and Illinois.[16]

After reportedly teaching 20,000 students to swim, Kistler, a ‘crusader’ in making swimming a ‘must’ at American Universities, retired in 1927. While the 1930 census suggests he was still registered as a college instructor, the 1940 census records him as having no occupation and Kistler died on January 18, 1942, aged 78, leaving £397 17s 4d.[17]

Professor Christopher Butterworth

While Cavill, Holroyd, and Kistler are among the best recorded examples of swimming professors who went abroad they were merely the tip of the iceberg and several other men left England for foreign climes, taking their swimming expertise with them. One such individual was Christopher Butterworth (1873-1934) and thanks to the generosity of Judith Butterworth, who shared her family knowledge and provided access to extensive family records, it has been possible to explore for the first time, and in some detail, the life of a humble migrant professor who made a career out of teaching swimming, generating in the process a local, rather than a global or national, reputation.

Christopher Butterworth was born on 18 January 1973, at Acker Street, Rochdale, Lancashire, England, and he was baptised in Rochdale in February 1873 (Figure 3) when his father Robert (1844-1902) was shown as a pork butcher and his mother was Betsy (1845-1912), whose maiden name was Bentley.[18]

The 1881 England and Wales census shows 8-year-old Christopher and 6-year-old brother Benjamin living with Robert, now a dentist, and Betsy, also a dentist, in Castleton, Rochdale (Figure 4).[19]

Intriguingly, the 1881 Canadian census also records what appears to be the same Butterworth family in the Wellington district of Ontario. Dentist Robert Butterworth, 40, was accompanied by his wife Betsy, 36, John, 18, Christopher 9, and Benjamin, 6, all Methodists born in England. Given that both the Canadian census and the England and Wales census were taken within twenty-four hours of each other, the 3^rd and the 4^th of April, this is puzzling. Either this was an early example of teleportation, which is unlikely, or these are actually different families, or maybe someone else filled in one of the censuses on their behalf. The family appears on the England and Wales census of 1891 but not on the 1891 Canadian census so the best guess is that they were visiting Canada in 1881 and that someone in Rochdale provided their details for the census. Something for the genealogists to get their teeth into.

What is clear is that Christopher’s family was always involved in dentistry. The dentists’ register for 1892 shows that Betsey Butterworth, of 15, Fleece Street, Rochdale, Lancashire, was registered on July 15, 1879, and had been in practice before July 22, 1878, as had Robert, who was registered on December 31, 1878, and John Robert Butterworth of 51A, Oldham Road, Royton, who was registered on February 27, 1891.[20] The Rochdale Times reported in 1889 that Robert, who had previously provided dental services at The Walk in Rochdale had arrived back in Liverpool on the Etruria on Sunday September 22 after a year away in America where he had obtained an additional diploma in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. His ‘Certificate No. 127’, noting that he had passed a satisfactory examination as to his knowledge and skill in dentistry, was issued on 28 November 1888, since when Robert and Betsy had travelled over 30,000 miles around the States and Canada.[21] Despite losing a court case for ‘negligently and unskilfully drawing a tooth’ and having to pay £21 and costs in 1893,[22] Robert continued offering dental services and an 1896 advert for his Fleece Street practice noted that he had just returned again from America, with a large stock of teeth and a knowledge of up to date dental techniques (Figure 5).[23]

Five years earlier, Christopher was still living with Robert, Betsy, and brother Benjamin, now 15, at 15 Fleece Street, and also giving his occupation as a dentist (Figure 6).[24]

By this point, Christopher had established something of a reputation for himself as an accomplished swimmer and teacher. In July 1893 Butterworth won a ‘keenly contested’ neat dive competition at the Corporation Baths in Rochdale.[25] At a Rochdale New Dolphin Swimming Club gala in August 1893, he won a two lengths silk hat race, which caused ‘endless amusement’, and joined fellow instructors West and Stuart in giving exhibitions of the overhand stroke, back swimming, neat dive, swimming like a seal, water wheel, diving feet first, shadow swimming, long dive, swimming on the back without the use of the arms, swimming one length of the bath under water with the hands and feet tied, steam tug, swimming like a porpoise, waltzing in the water, walking on the hands at the bottom of the bath, under and over, leap frog, and swimming home.[26] At the end of the year he gave a ‘clever exhibition of trick swimming and diving’ at a swimming gala at the Maden Public Baths, Bacup.[27] The following year Professor West handed to the secretary of the Ambulance Corps the sum of £2 17s 5d, the proceeds of the swimming gala at the baths promoted by himself, assisted by Professor Butterworth and Madame Rosenberg, of Manchester, and Messrs. H. Baldwin and C.W. Lloyd of Rochdale.[28]

Canada Beckons 1895-1900

These years seem to have represented a transitional period for Butterworth and it is not clear at what stage he completed his migration to Canada, even though the 1901 census of Canada stated that the immigration year for both Christopher and his wife was 1895. This is a little strange since Christopher actually married Emily Dawson of Reform Street, Rochdale, (1874-1939) in a registry office wedding in June 1896.[29] Emily was born on 14 February 187 in Clyde Street, Rochdale, she was a member of the choir of the Trinity Presbyterian church,[30] and the couple went on to have a son, Henry Benjamin (Ben), born on 14 May 1901 in London, Ontario, Canada.

The Professor was in Rochdale at least a month earlier according to a newspaper report on a local drowning. The efforts to recover the body of James Hollowell, the son of the Rev. J. Hirst Hollowell, who was drowned in Hollingworth Lake in May 1896, included ‘Chrisopher Butterworth of Rochdale, a teacher of swimming’, making ‘several descents in the corner of the lake near where the deceased’s clothes were found in the old boathouse’.[31] At the seventh annual gala of the Rochdale New Dolphin Swimming Club in September 1896 at the Corporation Baths, Smith Street, Rochdale, Prof. Chris. Butterworth, instructor to the club, and also to the Mount Zion (Bacup), Elton, Bury, and Middleton clubs, performed a remarkable feat. After entering the water at the side of the baths with a neat dive, he pushed across the bath ten times underwater without making a single stroke, a total of 120 yards, breaking his previous record by 20 yards. It was a ‘capital performance and the large audience cheered him lustily’.[32]

A significant factor adding to the confusion over Butterworth’s chronology during these years is the publication of his swimming manual. The Rochdale Observer reported in January 1895 that The Art of Swimming Made Easy, a useful little manual on swimming, had been written by Professor Butterworth. It contained ‘much good advice and many hints which those who have learnt to swim, as well as those who are learning or who desire to learn, may with advantage take to heart’.[33] According to its title page the book was designed to be a clear and concise manual of how to swim, augmented by advice on under water and ornamental swimming. In his Preface, Butterworth, declared that his ‘little book’ was mainly aimed at those unable to take private lessons but who were keen to ‘acquire the Art of Swimming as a healthy amusement and as a valuable exercise. He hoped that it would be ‘useful and of value to many, if only a portion of those who read it’.

The rare, and possibly unique, copy of this manual held by the family, however, was quite obviously produced in the Canadian context since it states that he was the Swimming Instructor to the Y.M.C.A., London (Ontario) and that he had previously been ‘Professional Instructor to the Rochdale New Dolphin A.S.C., Parish Church A.S.C., Middleton A.S.C., Mount Zion A.S.C., and the Bacup and Elton Bury A.S.C. Lancashire (England) Swimming Clubs.’ The price is also noted as 10 cents (Figure 7).

In addition, all the advertisers dotted throughout the book come from London, Ontario, namely…

• Oak Hall, The Home of Good Clothing, 154 Dundas Street
• Frank Cooper, Artistic Photographer, Over 169, 171, 173 Dundas Street
• W.F. Horton Company, Bicycle and Motorcycle Manufacturers 179 Dundas Street
• Gammage and Sons, Florists, 207 Dundas Street
• Mason and Risch, Pianoforte Makers, 211 Dundas Street
• Smith Bros and Company, Plumbers and Gasfitters, 265 Dundas Street
• N.I. McDermid, Druggist and Optician, 272 Dundas Street
• C.R. Somerville, Paper Box Manufacturer, 618 to 630 Dundas Street
• Harrison, Undertaker and Practical Embalmer, 671 Dundas Street
• C.E. German, Life Assurance Agent, 421 Richmond Street
• A.N. Udy, Insurance Agent, 421 Richmond Street
• John J. Jepson, Dispensing Chemist, Corner Wellington Street and Horton Street
• Albert D. Jordan, Teacher of Organ, Piano and Vocal Interpretation, 245 Queen’s Avenue
• Gidley and Son, Merchant Tailors, 404 Clarence Street
• Robinson Corset Company, 375 Clarence Street
• W.E. Saunders and Company, Physicians’ Supplies, 352 Clarence Street
• Forest City Laundry, 72 and 74 King Street
• Smith, Family Butcher, 552 Hamilton Road
• Walton’s Grand Opera Pharmacy, Phone 335
• Forest City Business and Shorthand College

Prominent among the advertisements is a full-page advert for the Young Men’s Christian Association (Y.M.C.A), the professor’s employer, which outlines its facilities and the membership costs (Figure 8).

So, on the face of it, the 1895 newspaper report could be read as indicating that the professor was already working in Canada by then, but it is equally plausible of course, and probably more likely, that the family’s copy represents a later Canadian reprint.

Contents

If it was a later reprint, it had not really been updated since the contents of the manual reproduce the standard amateur guidance given to swimmers in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Starting with some well-known historical examples of swimmers and swimming feats, Butterworth moves on to give advice on entering the water and on the kicking, arm movements, and breathing associated with the breaststroke. This is not surprising since the British approach to teaching swimming invariably began with this as the first stroke taught well into the twentieth century, in contrast to the front crawl that was increasingly favoured elsewhere. Diving, swimming on the back, and side swimming are the subjects of the next sections and the overhand sidestroke is touched on briefly. Doggy paddle, sculling, the Water Wheel, marching on the water, and floating are addressed, but there is an underlying impression that, in many respects, Butterworth’s instructional advice would have been regarded as a little behind the times by leading American swim coaches of the early twentieth century  and this is reinforced by pages 25 and 26, which are devoted to hints on training.

While he recognised that swimmers were all different physically and that each needed a unique training regime, Butterworth also believed there were training fundamentals common to everyone. He cites Captain Webb, the Channel swimmer from the 1870s, in arguing that training was simply healthy living, eating plain, good, and nutritious food, with a reasonable amount of outdoor exercise taken daily, sufficient to maintain a healthy action of the bodily functions. This was a mantra that was repeated ad nauseum by the amateurs associated with the ASA whose training philosophy emphasised moderation in contrast to what were seen as the excesses of professional regimes.

According to Butterworth, rising somewhat early, a cold sponge down, or, if handy, a cold shower bath should be taken (portable shower baths made of tinware were available), followed by a good rub down with a rough towel. Alternatively, the body could be rubbed with friction gloves, followed by the shower or sponging, then drying and dressing quickly. About five to ten minutes’ dumb-bell exercise should then be taken, taking care that the muscles were not over-taxed by using dumb-bells that were too heavy. Those of three- or four-pounds’ weight were sufficient, unless accustomed to heavier and constant exercise of the kind, since the use of heavy bells could ‘so thoroughly fag or tire muscular activity, that it tends to lessen and destroy whatever chance a swimmer might originally think he had, instead of ‘putting on’ muscle quickly’. A brisk walk of two to three or more miles at a reasonable pace should then be undertaken and, if possible, a swim to ‘get in form and promote staying power’. Then a rest of about a quarter of an hour before breakfast. To vary the monotony of a walk, an occasional run across country would be useful to improve ‘wind’.

Twice the distance to be raced should occasionally be swum over, and spurts of half the distance once or twice a week. Occasionally, after the usual swim, the body should be well rubbed down with a rough towel, the muscles massaged, and a swim at top speed against time taken to watch for improvements. An experienced person should invariably assist and point out and correct any faults or hinderances to speed he may consider necessary. As for diet, this should be whatever the swimmer chooses to eat while avoiding ‘liquids of a trashy and non-nutritious nature’. The hair should preferably be kept short to prevent catching cold and to be quickly dried. Smoking should be avoided because the action of nicotine on the heart was a ‘direct poison’ and would impede its proper action, making it difficult to make a ‘spurt’ during a swim, and ‘it doesn’t improve the wind at all’. Attention should always be paid to the bodily habits, in order not to have even a day’s sickness. Butterworth’s other practical hints included the advice to eat a couple of hours before a meal.

Training should commence at least a month previous to the day of the race, and although no improvement might be noticeable for a week or so, benefit would eventually accrue, and allow…

‘…the carefully trained man to prove his superiority to the untrained and careless one, if not in a tangible form, such as cups and medals, it will be evident in better health and good spirits, which is by far more to be valued’.

The epitome of the late nineteenth-century amateur approach to sport.

 

Article copyright of Prof Dave Day

 

Read Part Two, Click HERE 

 

References 

[1] ‘Two Champion Swimmers. What Willie and Agnes Beckwith Say of the National Art,’ Macon Weekly Telegraph, 30 September 1883, 6.

[2] Cecil Colwin, Swimming into the 21st Century (Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 1992), 196.

[3] ‘J.A. Tank Baths for Sydney,’ Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 19 August 1899, 444.

[4] For a detailed discussion of the Cavill family and the development of the crawl see Gary Osmond and Murray G. Phillips, ‘”Look at That Kid Crawling” Race, Myth and the “Crawl” Stroke,’ Australian Historical Studies 127, (2006), 43-62.

[5] Gary Osmond, ‘Forgetting Charlie and Tums Cavill: Social Memory and Australian Swimming History,’ Journal of Australian Studies 33:1 (2009), 93-107, 99.

[6] Gary Osmond, ‘Swimming Instruction Trust of America’: The Cavill Family, Borderlands and Decentring Australia Sport History,’ Sport in History 39:1 (2019), 24-44, 34-36.

[7] 1898 USA Directory; 1899 Naturalization Application Papers; 1900 USA Census New York, Manhattan.

[8] ‘Charles Holroyd is coming to Pittsburgh,’ Pittsburgh Press, 5 September 1912, 17; ‘Waltham is to Lose Pool and Holroyd,’ Boston Globe, 4 September 1912, 7.

[9] ‘Charles Holroyd is coming to Pittsburgh,’ Pittsburgh Press, 5 September 1912, 17.

[10] 1920 USA Census; 1929 Pittsburgh Directory; 1930 USA Census; 1935 Probate; ‘Death of Holroyd,’ Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 2 July 1935, 18.

[11] Perambulator, ‘Presentation to Mr George Kistler,’ Cornishman, 14 September 1893, 4; Shipping Manifest October 7, 1893, to New York – George and Susan Kistler.

[12] Philadelphia Inquirer, ‘Kistler beats Dunks,’ 16 August 1896, 9; ‘Benefit to Prof. George Kistler,’ 31 August 1898, 4; ‘Schaeffer Swims Well,’ 15 January 1899, 13; ‘Kistler’s Swimming Feat,’ 6 July 1899, 7; ‘Kistler after a Harder Swim,’ 10 September 1901, 6; ‘Water Experts’ Exhibition at Girard College,’ 14 September 1902, 12; ‘Ladies Night Athletic Meet a Big Success,’ 10 March 1904, 10; Trenton Evening Times, ‘Kistler to Swim 150 Miles,’ 9 August 1902, 11; Times, ‘The Swimming Championships,’ 23 June 1896, 9; ‘Sports at Houston Hall,’ 21 February 1897, 10; ‘’Swimming at Wayne. N.S.A Races for Professor Kistler’s Benefit a Great Success,’ 4 September 1898, 8; ‘’Natatorium Forty Years Old,’ 27 April 1902, 2; Reading Times, ‘The Evening Contests,’ 20 January 1905, 5; Pittsburgh Press, ‘East Liberty Swimmers win from U. of Penn Team,’ 13 April 1909, 9, 12.

[13] Pittsburgh Press, ‘Swimming at U. of Penn,’ 9 December 1906, 20; Altoona Tribune, ‘Athletics Alive at Pennsylvania,’ 25 January 1913, 10; Philadelphia Inquirer, ‘West Phila. Wins Swimming Honours,’ 16 January 1916, 19.

[14] Times (Philadelphia), 6 July 1895, 8; South Wales Echo, ‘Sporting Items,’ 31 August 1896, 3; Philadelphia Inquirer, ‘Varsity Swimming Races,’ 4 October 1903, 11.

[15] Pittsburgh Press, ‘Swimming at U. of Penn,’ 9 December 1906, 20; Wilkes Barre Times, 17 June 1903, 6; Pittsburgh Press, ‘Water Polo for Penn,’ 17 December 1905, 20; Tacoma Daily News, ‘Water Polo Makes Strides Toward Front,’ 13 January 1906, 18; Arrow, ‘Teach the Boys,’ 19 October 1917, 6.

[16] University of Pennsylvania http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/sports/swimming/overview.html (accessed 28.05.2016); Spalding’s Athletic Library publication Intercollegiate Swimming Guide 1915-1916, 39-41; Philadelphia Inquirer, ‘Hard Wrestling at Old Penn,’ 10 December 1913, 14; ‘Ten Meets on Penn Swimming List,’ 4 November 1920, 19.

[17] Repository, ‘Veteran Coach Gives up Job,’ 11 June 1927, 8; Wilkes Barre Times, ‘77-Year-Old Swim Mentor Died,’ 19 January 1942, 12; Appleton Post Crescent, ‘Veteran Mentor is Rewarded for Service,’ 6 April 1927, 12; Death Certificate. 3385/22. Probate. 1113 Divinity Place Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

[18] England & Wales Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records, Civil Births 1837-2006 Volume 8E Page 65; Baptisms in the Chapelry District of St. Mary’s, Wardleworth, Rochdale, Lancaster, 83.

[19] 1881 Census England and Wales. RG11/4108. 1 Walk Street (The Walk), Castleton, Rochdale.

[20] The Dentists’ Register for 1892, 52,

[21] ‘Return of Mr Robert Butterworth from America’. Rochdale Times, Saturday 28 September 1889, 5.

[22] ‘Important to Dentists’. West Cumberland Times 22 July 1893, 6.

[23] Rochdale Observer, 14 November 1896, 1.

[24] 1891 Census England and Wales. RG12/3330. 15 Fleece Street, Castleton, Rochdale.

[25] ‘Rochdale New Dolphin Swimming Club’. Rochdale Observer, 29 July 1893, 5.

[26] ‘Rochdale New Dolphin Swimming Club. Gala at the Baths. Exhibition by “Joey” Nuttall’. Rochdale Observer 9 August 1893, 6.

[27] Local News. Rochdale Observer, Saturday 6 January 1894, 4.

[28] The Ambulance Corps. Rochdale Observer, Saturday 29 September 1894, 5.

[29] England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005. June quarter 1896 Rochdale Registration District volume 8e p158.

[30] ‘Rochdalian’s Death in Canada. Former Swimming Teacher’. Rochdale Observer, Saturday 6 October 1934, 13.

[31] ‘The Drowning of a Minister’s Son’. Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 22 May 1896, 3.

[32] Rochdale Times, Saturday 26 September 1896, 5.

[33] Rochdale Observer, Saturday 26 January 1895, 5.