Hove in the Past: Mercedes Gleitze (1900

Judy Middleton 2002 (revised 2024)

by Underwood & Underwood,vintage print, 26 June 1928
Given by Terence Pepper, 2012

She was a noted long-distance and open water female swimmer with world-wide fame, but dropped out of public awareness until quite recent times when there was a flurry of re-awakened interest.

In 2022 a blue plaque was unveiled at the house where she was born on 18 November 1900 in Freshfield Road, Brighton. Then a film was made about her story called Vindication Swim, and it will come to cinemas in March 2024 in co-ordination with International Women’s Day on 8 March.

But nowhere is her connection with Hove mentioned. It is of vital importance too because it was at Hove that she learned how to swim. Part of this omission is due to the good lady herself who stated that she first learnt to swim at Brighton. But she was using ‘Brighton’ as a generic term for the whole area.

Her parents, Heinrich and Anna Gleitze, were German, and when Mercedes was the tender age of eighteen months, she was sent to Germany to be brought up by her grandparents at Hertzogenaurach, and she did not return to England until she was ten years old.

copyright © D. Sharp
Shown in the centre is 36 Lower Market Street, Hove,
the home of the Gleitze family. The house was just over
a half mile from Mercedes' East Hove School in Davigdor Road.

The census of 1911 records Mercedes and her parents living at 36 Lower Market Street, Hove, which was only a 200 yard walk to Hove Esplanade and views of the English Channel. Being only a few minutes away from her home, Mercedes would probably have spent many hours on Hove seafront after school and at weekends. But her two sisters, Doloranda and Estella, were not there in 1911, because they were probably in Germany with their Grandparents.
Heinrich had found work at the Hotel Metropole as a baker. German hotel staff were highly valued because they had received formal training in their home country. Indeed it is perhaps surprising that there was a thriving German community in Brighton and Hove before the First World War, and for instance, in 1911 there were no less than 295 German nationals employed in Brighton and Hove's many hotels.

copyright © J. Middleton
The Hotel Metropole is on the left, which was claimed to be one of the finest hotel in Europe in Edwardian times. The Metropole was a half mile walk for Heinrich Gleitze from his Hove home to his place of work in the kitchens of this Brighton hotel.

Mercedes joined her family at Hove in 1910/1911 when she was aged ten, and she wrote that her mother came to collect her. Her mother was a governess and language teacher and it is likely she home-schooled Mercedes for a while until she was proficient in English because of course Mercedes had spoken German for years. (Mercedes excelled in learning languages and was reputed to be able to speak six by the time she was in her early twenties).

There was another interlude in Germany because Mercedes and her sisters were sent back in 1912 to enter a convent school but during the holidays they went to stay with their grandparents where Mercedes developed a serious illness. The German doctor recommended a speedy return to England because she was obviously missing the sea air and the Gleitze family home in Lower Market Street was only 200 yards from Hove's seafront.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
An Edwardian view of Hove Beach, which Mercedes would have known well while living at Lower Market Street.

When war broke out there were problems, and some Germans, including Heinrich, spent the war years in the Isle of Man. The three young girls were British nationals, and they could have stayed put, but Mrs Gleitze was anxious to return to Germany.

THE HOVE SCHOOL (where Mercedes learnt to swim)

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
East Hove Schools in Davigdor Road, Hove, half a mile
from Mercedes's Lower Market Street home.
(the school was demolished in the early 1990s)

Mercedes Gleitz attended the East Hove Schools in Davigdor Road, Hove, which was so up-to-date that it had its own swimming pool in the basement. The building (and its pool) were completed in 1893 at a cost of £15,000, although the pool only cost a modest £642. It was lined with white, glazed tiles, and measured 50-ft x 20-ft, the depth being 2-ft x 6-in at one end and 4-ft 6-in at the other end. Hove councillors were proud of the school, and on opening day (Saturday 6 May 1893) it was proclaimed that it was ‘probably the finest public elementary free school in the kingdom.’ Naturally, the ratepayers were not quite so thrilled and grumbled that the ‘School Board had entered upon a period of extravagance’. Indeed, in 1906 it was decided that parents would have to pay six pence a week for their child to attend, although those who won scholarships were not charged anything.

copyright © National Library of Australia
The above is a part of an article written by Mercedes for the
Rockhampton Evening News on 5 February 1941, she
uses ‘Brighton’ as a generic term for the whole area,
Mercedes actually lived and attended a school in the neighboring
Borough of Hove.

Gleitz was taught to swim by the redoubtable Miss Mary Edgar who was never known to don a swimming costume herself, and instead shouted instructions from the side. Gleitz took to water like the proverbial duck, and indeed open water swimming became her passion, and her courage and powers of endurance were much admired.

Mercedes was at the Hove School for two years but at some stage before August 1914 returned to Germany. However, by April 1918 she was so homesick for England that she embarked on a desperate bid to return to these shores on her own but after reaching Holland, her mother found Mercedes and returned her back to their Bavarian home. Mercedes eventually succeeded in moving back to England in 1921 and was employed as a typist for a German Shipping Company in London which she later gave up to become a full time long distance swimmer.

An Astonishing Achievement

Gleitz was the first English woman to swim across the English Channel on 7 October 1927, and it was her eighth attempt at the feat; she was also not the first person to complete the swim because twelve others had done it, including two American women.

The Times did manage to publish Gleitz’s outstanding feat on 8 October but the unfortunate Sussex Daily News had to wait because up until 10.30.p.m. the previous night the newsmen had heard nothing since the afternoon message by carrier pigeon. The vital carrier pigeon was delayed by thick fog and took six hours to cross the Channel.

Of course, the thick fog was an extra hazard for Gleitz who was nearly run down by passing ships several times. The Folkestone fishing boat that accompanied her had to sound its foghorn continuously, and the men on board had difficulty in keeping her in sight at all. By the time she reached English shores, visibility was down to five yards. She was kept going by grapes and honey, strong tea and cocoa. During the final two hours she had to endure terrible pains in her limbs due to the coldness of the water.

She left Gris Nez at 2.55.a.m. and her feet touched the chalk rocks between South Foreland and St Margaret’s Bay at 6.10.p.m. After touching land she collapsed into the arms of her trainer Mr G. H. Allan, and the pilot. She was unconscious for nearly two hours in the cabin of the fishing boat. Her trainer described her historic swim as the pluckiest thing he had ever witnessed. When they arrived at Folkestone, they were greeted by a large, cheering crowd.

On 28 October 1927 Gleitz paid a visit to the Hove School, and all the children lined up in the hall to greet her.

Of course her old headmistress, Miss Florence Yeomanson, was delighted at her success, and said,‘I can quite imagine her accomplishing the feat for she was always determined. If she made up her mind a thing ought to be done, she would do everything she could to carry it through.’

Miss Yeomanson

It is interesting to note that Gleitze recognised her debt to her school because she kept in touch with Miss Yeomanson. In her biography of her mother In the Wake of Mercedes Gleitz, her daughter, Doloranda Pember, quoted one such letter dated 18 June 1928. But she described the recipient as a ‘teacher friend’ and not as her former headmistress.

Miss Florence Yeomanson was the head of the school from 1905 to 1937. She started off as a pupil teacher at the Ellen Street Schools at Hove, and in 1891 she came second in order of merit of all the female pupil teachers in Brighton and Hove. In 1927 the Revd P. Cazelet wrote a report about scripture teaching and had this to say ‘Anyone who knows of Miss Yeomanson’s great power as a teacher and her great spiritual influence over her girls will not need to be told that her lessons were models of what such lessons should be.’

Miss Florence Yeomanson, was a member of the Hove Swimming Club and the daughter of William Yeomanson the Stationmaster of Hove Railway Station. Her brother Augustus Yeomanson served as the Honorary Secretary of Hove Swimming Club at the Medina Baths and later in 1920, he was elected the President of the Sussex County Amateur Swimming Association.

It is possible that Gleitze was inspired by the Christian ethics imparted by Miss Yeomanson because it is a fact that Gleitze was greatly concerned about the welfare of homeless people. Right from the start of her swimming career she was putting prize money and earnings aside because she wanted to be able to buy a house so that such unfortunate souls could have a roof over their heads. She succeeded, and indeed her charity remains in operation to this day.

Difficulties

However, after the elation of the Channel swim there came the downside when officials began to question the veracity of Gleitze’s achievement because it was not properly recorded and supervised. Just two weeks later on 21 October 1927 Gleitz undertook an official ‘vindication’ swim, and this time she was accompanied by two small boats and a tug full of journalists who sang songs to encourage her. Gleitz was in the water for eleven hours, but was obliged to give up just seven miles from Dover.

One good thing to come out of the attempt was that the Swiss Rolex Company presented her with their latest oyster model, and the world’s first waterproof watch, which she wore during her swim. It was a good test of its being waterproof, and never mind a publicity scoop for Rolex. (In June 2000 this same watch came up for auction at Christie’s in London, and it was expected to fetch more than £20,000. Richard Chadwick, watch specialist at Christie’s, said it was a legendary item, and several collectors would love to own it.)

When Gleitze returned to her flat after the vindication swim, she found it had been broken into, and her newly-presented leather travelling case had been stolen. It contained important documents and items relating to her Channel swimming activities.

Career and Married Life

Mercedes Gleitze and Patrick Joseph Carey on their wedding day with adult bridesmaids 'Channel Twins' Bernice and Phyllis Zittenfield from the USA.

by J.G. Whorwell & Son, bromide press print, 8 August 1930, NPG x198296

After a whirlwind romance Gleitz married Dublin-born Patrick Carey at a Roman Catholic church in Dover. The couple went on to have three children, one boy and two girls. It is remarkable that she performed one of her epic swims whilst pregnant.

She did consult a doctor about whether or not such a swim would be safe for the baby, and the doctor was of the opinion that since her body was used to such extreme exertions, her baby should not be affected.

1930, NPG x198513

Gleitz’s swimming career lasted from 1923 to 1933, during which time she performed 27 epic open water swims, and 27 endurance swims conducted in many different swimming pools.

After leaving East Hove School 14 years ago, how proud Mercedes must have been of her time at the school, to have given the school’s name to the writer of this article.
Maybe this was because the East Hove School started Mercedes off in her swimming career ?

She had always wanted to swim the Hellespont (Dardenelles) a romantic and historic venture, and this she achieved in 1930, the same year in which she swam around the Isle of Man. She also travelled to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Her married life could not be more of a contrast because she devoted herself to her family. She became a virtual recluse, and she kept her identity a strict secret from neighbours, and even her children had no idea of how famous their mother had been in her youth. But all that swimming took its toll in the end, and she ended up suffering badly from arthritis in both knees, which made her house-bound. She was delighted when a TV set was placed in her bedroom because it allowed her to keep up with events, and she was particularly interested in the moon-landings.

Sources

Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

National Portrait Gallery

Pember, Doloranda In the Wake of Mercedes Gleitze (2019)
(All profits from the sale of this biography will go to the Mercedes' Charity, although her Mercedes Gleitze Homes for Destitute Men and Women were destroyed in November 1940 by enemy action, the Mercedes’ trust fund is still active today, re-named The Mercedes Gleitze Relief in Need Charity - Charity number 264713-44)

Rockhampton Evening News (5 February 1931)

Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

Sussex Daily News October 1927

The Southern Districts Advocate (Western Australia) 23 October 1927

The Herald (Melbourne) 8 October 1927

The Times October 1927

The Queenslander (Australia) 31 May 1928

The Keep

Davigdor Road School Log Book – ESC 101/1/5 – Girls – 1912 to November 1945

Additional research by D. Sharp

Page layout & design by D. Sharp

Hove in the Past

Pages

16 February 2024

Mercedes Gleitze (1900 - 1981)