Years	1954 4+ (bronze)
Clubs	Stuart Ladies ARC
Born	1928

Iris in the stroke seat of the GB coxed four at the 1954 Women’s European Rowing Championships. (Photo: Barabara Kaye’s personal collection.)

Iris took up rowing at the thriving Stuart Ladies Amateur Rowing Club, on the river Lee in east London, in her early twenties.

The British Rowing Almanack records her as winning Women’s Clinker Fours at Richmond Boxing Day Amateur Regatta in late 1952. She is likely to have started racing – and probably wining – before that; post-war paper shortages and costs meant that only winning club names were published for some competitions, but not the names of the crew members.

In March 1953 she had the first of three consecutive wins at the Women’s Eights Head of the River Race from a field of 12 crews. The entry dipped to 10 crews in 1954 and 1955 but you can only race who’s there. The Start crew had a nasty experience while training on the Tideway course a couple of weeks ahead of the race. Rowing in a boat borrowed or rented from Auriol Rowing Club, they were swamped in rough wind-against-stream conditions – as was a men’s crew from Thames Tradesmen’s RC. “That brought us a little comfort, we didn’t feel so ashamed then,” one of Iris’ crewmates told the local paper. Hampered by their tracksuits in the icy water, the Stuart women eventually managed to get wade ashore and empty out the boat before rowing back to Auriol, still sopping wet.

Later in 1953 she won Junior Coxed Fours at Weybridge Ladies ARC Regatta and Junior-Senio (the next status up) at the Women’s ARA regatta, stroking a crew of Joan Chilvers, Madge Button, Pat Webb, coxed the club captain Marjorie Lutz who had rowed at the International Women’s test regattas in 1951 and 1952.

At the ‘News of the World’ Coronation Regatta (sponsored by the erstwhile tabloid newspaper) held on the Serpentine in August, Stuart Ladies ARC won both the eights and the coxed fours with Iris in both. The full lineup for the eight was:

B: Josie Chilvers
2: Madge Button
3: Barabara Benzing
4: Rene Plumer
5: Bette Shubrook
6: Iris Simpson
7: Pat Webb
S: Joyce Townsend
Cox: Marjorie Lutz

And for the four:

B: Barbara Benzing
2: Iris Simpson
3: Joyce Townsend
S: Bette Shubrook
Cox: Marjorie Lutz

All of these women already had international experience or would go on to represent Great Britain.

At the beginning of May 1954, fresh from retaining her Women’s Head title, Iris won Shell Eights at Alpha Borne Regatta before having the rare opportunity to race abroad at a regatta in Compiègne, France on 23 May to which a Stuart Ladies ARC coxed four and an Alpha Ladies ARC eight were invited. Iris stroked the Stuart crew, which was a familiar if slightly adjusted combination:

B: Marjorie Lutz
2: Barbara Benzing
3: Bette Shubrook
S: Iris Simpson
Cox: Hazel Freestone (Women’s ARA Secretary and not a Stuart Ladies member, subbing for Rita Walkerdine who was a schoolgirl)

Back in London, Iris’s crew won Senior Fours at the Status Fours Regatta on 12 June with Rita coxing once again, but only by a quarter of a length over the University of London Women’s BC. The two crews raced again at a trial in Weybridge, from which the Stuart crew was selected to represent Great Britain at the first official Women’s European Rowing Championships in 1954 at the Bosbaan in Amsterdam.

Almost in her ‘spare time’ Iris also won Maiden Single Sculls at Barnes & Mortlake events in July.

The four had their final pre-Championships at the ‘News of the World’ Sprint Regatta in August, doubling up as stern four of an eight, which also won.

Having so much race experience together clearly proved invaluable when it came to competing internationally. Iris’s crew won bronze at the inaugural Women’s European Rowing Championships, finishing third from a field of eight behind Russia and the Netherlands.

The following year Iris continued to notch up domestic wins in crews as well as taking the Junior title at the WARA Sculls, beating Pauline Sanson in the final. Sime time in between this and the 1956 Women’s ARA Fours regatta, where she won Senior Fours, Iris married Eric Forryan, an oarsman from Crowland Rowing Club, one of Stuart Ladies ARC’s neighbours on the River Lea.

Life after rowing

Iris’s name doesn’t appear in regatta records after this and neither does Eric’s. At some point they moved to Hertfordshire where Iris worked had a varied career including working at a Children’s Farm and a plant hire company in London. They retired to Somerset where Eric died in 2019. Iris died in 2024 at the age of 96.

The son of a family friend remembers, “Iris was always very dignified and quietly spoken but very much enjoyed telling us about the time [nearly – Ed.] they beat the Russians with all their state-of-the-art equipment!”

© 2026 Helena Smalman-Smith