Britain’s Oldest Living Olympic Swimmer Dies Just Shy of 95th Birthday

H/T to long-time Olympic statistician Hilary Evans for the news.

Trevor Harrop, one of the last surviving members of the 1948 British Olympic swim team, died in April. He died on April 9, just ten days short of his 95th birthday.

Harrop represented Great Britain in the 100 freestyle at the 1948 London Olympic Games, the first after the World War II hiatus. He finished 6th in his preliminary heat in a time of 1:02.3, and in 27th place overall. There was no men’s 400 free relay at the 1948 Olympic Games.

Harrop was born in Winnipeg, Canada but moved to Motherwell, Scotland at a young age. He was attending the University of Glasgow when he qualified for the 1948 Olympic Games.

After those Olympics, Harrop and his wife Sheila moved back to Canada, where he became a dentist in British Columbia. He served on the Faculty of Dentristy at the University of British Columbia from 1965 through 1990.

In 1970, Harrop took a sabbatical from his work to participate in Voyage 8 on the SS Hope, a charity project that provided medical care to the developing world from a former US Navy hospital ship. Voyage 8 traveled to Tunisia.

Trevor Harrop is survived by 4 children, 11 grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren.

Harrop was the oldest of four surviving members of the British swimming team at the 1984 Olympic Games. Still living from those Games are Ronald Stedman (who turned 95 in June), Jack Waldrop (who turned 90 in May), and Elizabeth Chuch (who turned 92 in March).

Born on April 19, 1927, he was the 154th oldest-living Olympian at the time of his death. He was the 5th-oldest living Olympic swimmer.

10 Oldest Living Olympians

Data Courtesy: Oldest Olympians Project