Visiting football fans laid wreath to Harry Clasper from Putney Bridge

Newcastle United fans travelled to Fulham for the opening match of the new season last Friday night (5th August) stopping on Putney Bridge before the match to pay tribute to the Geordie rowing hero Harry Clasper.

Clasper led teams of Tynesiders to win the Rowing Championship of the World on the Thames in the mid-nineteenth century with the races starting from the spot where the modern Putney Bridge currently stands.



Harry Clasper's son, John Hawks Clasper, himself a top rower, went on to build boats. His workshop, on the banks of the Thames in Putney, is now the Westminster School boathouse, which still bears his name, JH Clasper.

The Newcastle supporters threw a wreath onto the Thames in memory of the man some believe to be the greatest sportsman ever to come out of the North East and the father of modern rowing, "aquatics" as it was termed in the Victorian era.

Newcastle fan Steve Cook, who initiated the tribute, explained: "Rowing was the sport of the working class before the advent of football and every river-based city had its champions.

"In excess of 100,000 people would cram the riverside and bridges to cheer on their heroes."

Harry "Hadaway" Clasper was a hero not just in his native North East but nationally and internationally. In addition to coxing teams to the world titles he trained and inspired future world champions and invented the rowing boats seen today in the Olympics and Oxbridge boat race.

Steve added: "When Harry and his brothers first won the world title in 1845 they were victorious over the ‘unbeatable’ Thamesmen. It caused a sensation nationally!"

When Harry died in 1870, aged 58, more than 130,000 people crammed the streets of Newcastle and Gateshead to pay tribute.

Hadaway Harry, a play by North East playwright Ed Waugh, about the life and times of Harry Clasper successfully toured the rivers Tyne and Wear last summer.

August 9, 2016