6 October 2023

By Thomas Wigley

*Thomas Wigley is on an honourable quest to make sure that rower and boat builder George Pocock will get a so-called Blue Plaque on the wall of the pub The George Inn in 78 Eton High Street. He also once and for all sets the record straight about George’s middle name.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a rowing legend in possession of a tremendous reputation must be in wont of a blue plaque. That legend in this case is George Yeomans Pocock, who was not only a great sculler but rather good at building wooden racing boats too. As far as I know, the ‘Pride and Prejudice’ hero could do neither of those things.

The Plaquery story began when I read Daniel James Brown’s excellent book The Boys in the Boat and contemplated a link to Eton College’s Masters’ Boat House, located on the river Thames bank side in Pococks Lane.

I read that George Pocock’s father Aaron had built boats for Eton College. I then wondered if Pococks Lane is so named because Aaron’s boat house was located there but now repurposed for use by Eton College rowers. I was wrong! It’s a coincidence that Pococks Lane is named after a John Pocock, no relation, who lived at Dutchman’s Farm in 1835. The farm’s former fields are now Eton’s playing fields and called ‘Dutchmans’.

In trying to prove my rather short-lived theory, my research revealed that in 1901, the 10-year-old George Pocock was living with his siblings and widowed father Aaron at number 78 Eton High Street, only a stone’s throw from the River Thames and Eton College’s ‘Rafts’ boat house where Aaron worked. George’s siblings were, at this time, Lucy Grace aged 13; Kathleen Maud 6 and his brother Dick, 11.

This census also tells us that Aaron was born in Rotherhithe in London, Lucy, Richard and Dick were born in Teddington and Kathleen was born in Kingston; and good old Father Thames runs through all those places.  Aaron’s occupation is recorded as “Boat Builder” and it seems to me that the census enumerator has added “Shipw” which could suggest “Shipwright”.

This picture above shows Eton College’s ‘Rafts’ boat house on the Thames much as George knew it. This view is taken from Windsor Bridge looking upstream and only a few meters from where the Pococks were living in 1901.

The picture below was taken by the author in September this year from roughly the same position.

All the riverside buildings upstream of the dinky private jetty were redeveloped circa 2012. Eton College still has a boat house here, but I think in a slightly different position; it’s the building with the three white balconies. Up stream of the College’s pontoons is a great place to sit, sip on a hot takeaway and admire the view of Windsor Castle just across the river.

I knew of George Pocock’s significant role in the success of the US men’s eight at the 1936 Olympics. I also know that the film of Dan Brown’s book ‘The Boys in the Boat’, directed by another famous George, George Clooney, is due to be released in the US on Christmas Day.

It was then that the rowing universe spoke unto me and I saw the light. A voice in my head said “get thee hence and erect a blue plaque for George”. And that’s what I’m trying to do. Blue plaques are a British tradition to celebrate the link between well-known people and the buildings in which they lived or worked.

In all that I have read about George Pocock, his middle name has been written as ‘Yeoman’ but my research has revealed that the Great Man’s middle name is actually “Yeomans”. I know this to be true because his birth registration and church baptism register both say so!

George’s official birth registration entry tells us that he was born on 23rd March 1891 at Teddington Park Road, his father Aaron is a ‘Boatbuilder Master’ and his mother is Lucy. The Pocock family home was less than half a mile from the famous Teddington Lock which forms the boundary between the tidal and non-tidal sections of the River Thames.

George was baptised on 17th May 1891 at St. Mary’s Church in Teddington. His baptism register entry confirms ‘Yeomans’ as his middle name and his date of birth is written in the margin.

So, furnished with the basic information needed for George’s blue plaque there remained only one, but crucial question; where, exactly, is number 78 Eton High Street? Research has established that it is now part of the wonderful pub called The George Inn run by the Windsor and Eton Brewery. I propose erecting George’s plaque on the outside wall of the pub, where number 78 would have been, facing the High Street.  Eton Town Council, Eton College and the Brewery all support the scheme.

The local authority has its own blue plaque design, but I’ve added the ‘Floreat Etona’ (let Eton flourish) town badge to emphasise a sense of place.

I’m working with various groups to get all the necessary permissions and to boost support for the project, but I may need to reach out for (modest!) funding because, believe it or not, Windsor and Maidenhead have no budget for this kind of thing! Watch this space as they say.

In the meantime, if you, dear reader, or anyone you know, agree that a George Pocock plaque is a ‘slam-dunk’ no-brainer then please write to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Museum Service on Museum@RBWM.gov.uk and let them know.

Oh, and if anyone knows how to contact George Clooney, please give him a link to this piece and ask him to get in touch! We’d love him to unveil the plaque cometh the hour.

I thank Chris Dodd for his help and support with this project and I respectfully refer readers to his excellent series of eight articles on all things Pocock published on HTBS. What a life George had. He deserves recognition in the town where he lived and where he learned to scull and build boats.

Chris Dodd’s Pocock articles:

1. The Wisdom of Pocock  16th February 2022
2. Messing about on the River  24th February 2022
3. Gordon Bennett!  7th March 2022
4. Rowing Boeing  29th March 2022
5. Pocock in Berlin: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times  26th May 2022
6. Pocock: Playing at Home  15th July 2022
7. Pocock 7: Golden Gateway to Helsinki 21st July 2022
8. Pocock 8: Searching for Your You of You’s…  15th November 2022

*Thomas Wigley calls himself a Johnny-come-lately rower after his son started to row at secondary school. Thomas is former chairman of the Windsor Boys’ School Boat Club. A retired sculler and retired project manager, Thomas is an Honorary Vice President of Eton Excelsior Rowing Club in Windsor. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Leeds University and an Advanced Diploma in Local History from Oxford University. Thomas helped to organise a two-day regatta on the Thames in Windsor to celebrate the 60th anniversary of her late Majesty’s Coronation. She commented, gracefully, on Thomas’s blue Wellington boots, whereupon he blamed the British weather. This is Thomas’s first HTBS contribution, which, he writes is “driven by a desire to have George Pocock properly recognised in his home town.”