Remembering Alan Canham
Alan Canham 1940 – 2024
Alan was born a Cockney Londoner in 1940, and was one of that generation who needed to be evacuated during the war. His parents Ida and Arthur, sent him for elocution lessons to help him “get on”. All his working life, Alan worked for Barclays Bank: at Stamford Hill, Finsbury Park and Tottenham. Every week, he was responsible for wheeling the cash from White Hart Lane back to the bank branch. There was never any trouble – Tottenham was protected by the
Kray Twins.
Alan met his wife, Sue at Barclays – they were both in the bank’s swimming team. They married on 12 November 1956. Alan’s enthusiasm for motor engines was already fully developed by then. At the age of 16 he had 8. But he was also a keen cyclist and once rode from London to Cheltenham to visit his uncle’s garage.
He had two children: Anne and Mark.
Grand-children: Amelia, Alex, Josh, Kyle, Sean
Great-grandson: Lee
When he was 32, Alan moved his family from Enfield to North Weald. It was at this point that he switched from Broomfield Park SC to Harlow – Swimming and Diving Club, as it was then known. Alan dedicated his life to swimming: as a club swimmer, he competed against Ian MacKenzie for the Essex County Breaststroke records. Until very recently they both still held some of the event best times. Alan remained a Masters competitor to the end. He set the over 70s
Essex 50m Breaststroke record. Alan was also a life-long volunteer – as a swimming coach; and also as a financial advisor to several large charities. Alan taught 4 generations of swimmers. He was a specialist Breaststroke coach and produced National Breaststroke competitors at Harlow in each of these generations: Alfie Blohm, Karl Batorski, Mason Arnold.
Essex County ASA awarded Alan a Silver Pin for over 15 years voluntary service to swimming He had an especially effective way with children and new swimmers. So much so that many people (including Rod Stewart) always wanted to pay him for private lessons; but he would never take any money – he preferred to work at the Club where he could be most effective to more swimmers. He was loved and respected by all coaches, parents and swimmers. Vikki Tee, one of several swimmers he taught who became a level 3 coach was inspired to put his name forward for the Queen’s Honours List. Ironically, having just had a stroke, Alan did not qualify as “still volunteering in the role”, although as soon as he was able, Alan was back in the water and though he never fully regained speech, he still tried to teach children through gesture.
We will all remember Alan’s many techniques and ways to describe swimming movements – as well as his jokes, and the way he would tell the same story over to each person he met in the morning. He was totally reliable. You could hear his BMW 3 Series classic as it pulled into the pool car park and know that you would never be walking onto poolside alone.
Alan was obsessed with cars – he owned 3 BMW classics. He had steel joists fitted to the roof of his garage so that he could hoist the engines out and over to his workbench. And carpet fitted to the inside walls so he never scratched the paintwork. It was easy to move him onto the subject of cars… and very difficult to get him to stop!
He was also gadget mad; in that he was always buying job lots of things (usually from North Weald Market) and giving you something “extremely useful” such as a micro towel for all the swimmers, or a multi-tool for the parents – and he was always buying Manuka honey and saying “I’ll put you down for 3 jars.” In fact, it was the first thing he called for after his stroke! And he always, always came onto poolside with his own bag of fins and paddles and aids of
all shapes and sizes for anybody to try.
Alan Canham was an institution at Harlow swimming club and will be greatly missed.
The club has name it’s December Open Meet the “Alan Canham Age Group Qualifier” as a fitting tribute – since achieving County Age Group times is a first sign of success for a competitive swimmer.
