25 January 2024

By Göran R Buckhorn

Thames Rowing Club announced on 21 January that its president, Pauline Rayner, had passed away at age 83. Rayner was a member of Thames RC for more than 40 years. She was Thames RC’s first female captain, chair and president.

Pauline Rayner (née Sanson) was born in 1940 and took to the oar when she was only 13 at Alpha Women’s Amateur Rowing Club in Chiswick. Still 13, she raced in her first Women’s Eights Head of the River Race (WEHORR). The same year, 1954, Alpha received an invitation to row in a May regatta in Compiègne, France. The British club had to lie about Rayner’s age (the competitors had to be 18 and older). Rayner rowed at 3, and in front of her, at 4, sat Pam Body.

Rayner began to scull early thereafter which eventually led to her and Pam Body, who was almost 15 years Rayner’s senior, being selected for the GB double sculls at the 1960 European Women’s Rowing Championships at the Welsh Harp Reservoir in Willesden, North London. Rayner/Body ended up last in the repechage.

Rayner had had her first child in December 1959 and with two more children, “Pauline’s rowing was fairly limited for most of the 1960s and early 1970s because she was busy bringing up her children with little help from her first husband, who hated rowing,” writes Helena Smalman-Smith of the brilliant website “Rowing Story”.

In 1981, Pauline married for a second time, now to London Rowing Club’s cox Maurice Rayner. Two years later she joined Thames RC. As a PE teacher, Rayner started a rowing programme at Putney High School, running it out of Thames and later Barn Elms Boat House. Throughout the years, many young women learned to row under her watchful eyes. She also coached the Thames novice crews.

Besides teaching others to row, Rayner also raced in veteran races and regattas. Many medals bear witness to her success at the oar at home and at international events. She was keen on putting crews together for WEHORR, Veteran Fours Head of the River and the Vesta Veterans Head. Among her successes were records on the erg, and she rowed indoors well into her 70s.

Being a stalwart member of Thames RC, Rayner became historic as the club’s first female captain in 1990-1993, club chair between 2001 and 2009, and was elected club president in 2019. That year, the club named a new women’s eight in Rayner’s honour. At the 2023 Henley Women’s Regatta, Rayner was at the event and could see how the crew of Pauline Rayner MBE won the Copas Cup for club eights. That year, she also attended Henley Royal Regatta to witness three sweet Thames victories.

Pauline Rayner was awarded an MBE in 2007 for services to sport. British Rowing was going to honour her with the association’s highest accolade, the British Rowing Medal of Honour, but sadly she passed away a few days before it was announced.

Sources for this article are from the websites of Thames RC, British Rowing and Rowing Story.