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ENGEnglandSport:SwimmingTom Blower was a Nottingham endurance swimmer whose career connected river training, coastal racing and pioneering channel crossings. Born in Hyson Green in 1914, the miner’s son practised in the River Trent near the Meadows. His working life included employment as a sales representative, while his swimming earned him the nickname “Torpedo Tom”.
He won the Morecambe Cross Bay championship in four successive years, from 1935 to 1938. During that period he made his first English Channel crossing, swimming from Cap Gris-Nez to Abbots Cliff in August 1937. Captain H. W. Pearson piloted the swim aboard Lady Brassey.
Blower served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. In 1947 he achieved the first successful North Channel swim between Ireland and Scotland, a feat that remained unrepeated until Kevin Murphy’s crossing in 1970. He returned to the English Channel in 1948, this time swimming from England to France with Freddie Upton and Sunbeam as his support team.
His third successful English Channel leg came in September 1951. It formed the completed outward portion of an unsuccessful double-crossing attempt, rather than a finished two-way swim. Blower later moved to Dartmouth and died in 1955. His place in marathon swimming history was recognised with induction into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1964.
Three Channel crossings · pioneer of the North Channel
Also recorded as Thomas Blower, Torpedo Tom.
Crossing details, recordings & verificationSolo swim
Wednesday, 4 August 1937 (recorded swim date)
France → England
Elapsed time · 13h 31m
Start clock · Clock time not confirmed
Finish clock · Clock time not confirmed
Sources disagree · See the crossing record for qualifications and supporting evidence.
Solo swim
1948 · exact day not recorded here
England → France
Elapsed time · 15h 31m
Start clock · Clock time not confirmed
Finish clock · Clock time not confirmed
Sources disagree · See the crossing record for qualifications and supporting evidence.
Solo swim
Tuesday, 11 September 1951 (recorded swim date)
England → France
Elapsed time · 18h 42m
Start clock · Clock time not confirmed
Finish clock · Clock time not confirmed
Ratifying body's record checked · See the crossing record for qualifications and supporting evidence.
Open-water swimming · Solo swim
Monday, 28 July 1947 (event date)
Donaghadee, Northern Ireland → Scotland
Completed the first successful North Channel swim, from Ireland to Scotland.
Elapsed time · 15h 26m
Historical account checked · Details and qualifications are in the career evidence.
Open-water swimming · Solo swim
1948 · exact day not confirmed
Dover → Ramsgate, England
Completed the coastal swim; the archive describes it as a route record at the time.
Elapsed time · 4h 36m
Historical account checked · Details and qualifications are in the career evidence.
1914
Grew up in Hyson Green and later trained in the River Trent.
1935–1938
Won the Cross Bay championship in four consecutive years.
4 August 1937
Swam Cap Gris-Nez to Abbots Cliff; the CSA lists 13:31.
July 1947
Became the first swimmer to complete the crossing between Ireland and Scotland.
August 1948
Completed England to France with Freddie Upton piloting Sunbeam.
11 September 1951
Finished the outward leg of an abandoned two-way attempt.
1964
Inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.
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First recorded finish
1 more finish needed
0 of 1 recorded
Selected swimming performances appear in the English Channel record above.
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