James Crowden, British Olympic rower, Died at 88

James Gee Pascoe Crowden was born on November 14, 1927, and died on September 24, 2016.

He was an English former oarsman

James competed for Great Britain in the 1952 Summer Olympics.

He was Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire.

He was born in Tilney All Saints, near Wisbech in 1927.

Crowden grew up in Peterborough and attended King’s School before going on to Bedford School.

James Crowden had his first victory at Henley Royal Regatta in 1946 as part of the school crew which won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, which that year was presented by the future Queen herself.

Then, he went to Pembroke College, Cambridge.

During 1951 James Crowden was part of the winning Cambridge boat in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in the year when Oxford sank, and the umpire stopped the race and ordered a rerow the following Monday.

James Crowden travelled to the United States to compete against American college crews at Yale and Harvard and won Silver Goblets at Henley partnering Brian Lloyd.

He won gold at the European Championships at Mâcon, in France, in 1951.

James Crowden was in the Boat Race again in 1952 (as President), when Cambridge lost and he competed in the coxless fours at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.

He became the Cambridge crew’s coach for the next 20 years.

He followed in the family profession, and became a chartered surveyor with a firm of auctioneers.

James Crowden was High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely in 1970 and was Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire from 3 July 1992 to 2002.

He was a vice-president of the British Olympic Association and a Steward of Henley Regatta.

James was involved with the Cambridgeshire Olympic Committee, and with Peterborough Rowing Club.

James Crowden’s first wife Kathleen died in 1989 and his only son Richard was killed in a road accident in 1982.

Crowden’s second wife Margaret was his brother’s widow, and died in November 2009.

James Crowden passed away at 88 years old.