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Autograph request
Postcard sent by Bray to Ivy Gill on 14th October 1927 asking for her autograph.
While Matthew Webb had been the first successful swimmer to cross the channel in 1875, la Manche wasn’t conquered again until 1911 and it wasn’t until 1923 that there was a third successful attempt.
Records tumbled in 1926 when the Frenchman George Michel completed the crossing in 11 hours 5 minutes and the first woman, the American Gertrude Ederle, made the crossing from France to England in 14 hours 39 minutes on 6 August.
British pride seemed to want the fastest woman to be British and the Dover municipal authorities offered a gold cup with a £5000 prize, oddly donated by an American film company, to any British woman beating Erdele’s time. In 1927 two British women successfully swam the channel - Ivy Gill and Mercedes Gleitz - but both were over half an hour outside the time set by the American.
Source: www.runner500.wordpress.com
