Blether with Brown: Recognition for Bert in Hall of Fame

George Johnston, from Berkhamstead, Hants, has delivered news of Arbroath’s swimming icon, the late Bert Kinnear, a Loughborough alumnus and first swimming coach there.

“Bert has been elected to the Loughborough Hall of Fame, having gone on to be a key figure at the Amateur Swimming Association,” he revealed.

“Bert qualified twice over for this honour, both as a competitor and as a coach.

“When the ASA moved their offices to Loughborough in the 1970s, close to his (Bert’s) family’s business there, I thought it strange that they called the premises Harold Fern House.

“Whatever attributes Harold Fern had, whether as a swimmer, administrator or as a local man, surely “Kinnear House” above the door would have been more appropriate and, especially now as a posthumous recognition.

“Research reveals that Mr Fern was an administrator at national and international level but, surely in this day and age, that doesn’t outrank someone who was an Olympic swimmer, national coach and local.

“Mr Fern, who died in 1974, was none of these.”