General Secretary, Civil Service Sports Council and Cygnet Rowing Club Vice President
1 October 1920 ~ 16 October 2011
The motto of Elliott Central School in Southfields, south-west London - 'Manners Maketh Man' - was not original, but few of its scholars better personified that maxim than Vic Reeves, CSSC General Secretary from 1974 to 1981 and Cygnet Rowing Club's most senior vice president, who died on 16th October 2011. Vic said that there were three cardinal points in his life: schooling; serving in the army; and joining Cygnet Rowing Club. While he always spoke with fondness about all three, he regarded the last as one of the great 'milestones' in his long and active life.
Victor Horace Reeves was born in Wandsworth on 1st October 1920. He was educated at Elliott Central School, a place of learning which, by his own admission, prided itself in attracting 'moderately bright people'. Like many young men in the 1930s, Vic joined the Territorial Army, initially serving as an infantryman in the London Irish Rifles, his father's old regiment. Later, midway through the Second World War, he transferred to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), a unit that played well to his skills and interests and kept him occupied until the cessation of hostilities in 1945.
Life on 'Civvy Street', following demobilization in 1946, presented new challenges. An early job offer as a shorthand typist hardly seemed appropriate and Vic wasted little time in discarding this opportunity. In contrast to our own austere times, public sector jobs were 'the only jobs going' in post-war London and the Post Office Savings Bank duly came to the rescue. Ever a keen, if not especially accomplished sportsman, an introduction to rowing at Cygnet, the Civil Service Rowing Club, at Chiswick in 1948 opened a new window on Vic's life; it would remain open for over 60 years.
Vic described the early post-war Cygnet as a 'happy amalgam of young and old' ripe for the firm direction of 'young Turks' like himself; indeed, he saw himself as a ringleader. Minutes of club committee meetings chart his rapid advance up the tree of club officers from Honorable Secretary in 1949 to the first of three stints as Club Captain in 1952-55 (the others were in 1957 and 1962) and thence to Secretary and Chairman of the Civil Service Boathouse Executive.
The 1950s were a period of resurgence for Cygnet in open competition as it fought to recapture the Glory Years of the late 1930s. On Vic's watch, the Club introduced weight lifting as part of winter training and engaged outside coaching, laying the foundations for long sought after victories at Thames regattas. More broadly, he did much to put Civil Service rowing as a whole on the map, while waging a rear guard action against such inequalities as the seemingly intractable distinction between amateur and professional, which still haunted early post-war rowing in England.
Vic's lengthy association with Civil Service Rowing would prove to be a springboard for both his personal and professional life. Vic always maintained that the Boathouse was a rowing facility first and a marriage bureau second. With several ladies rowing clubs residing under the same roof as Cygnet, it was only a matter of time before Vic started 'walking out' with Angela, his wife to be, who rowed for St George's Ladies Rowing Club, and they were married in 1965.
Having immersed himself in the bureaucracy of civil service rowing, it was but a small step from the Treasury Solicitor's Department to the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC) in 1963 when he became Assistant Secretary. With his Treasury background it was an obvious fit for Vic to serve on the Council's Finance Committee. Over the next 18 years, Vic would devote himself tirelessly to the promotion of a wide array of sport in the public arena, latterly from 1974 - 81 as General Secretary. During his tenure the CSSC estate grew enormously, the demise of which is now allowing us to fund alternative capital ventures - without his foresight, CSSC would not be so financially stable. In his final year as General Secretary, CSSC celebrated its Diamond Jubilee with the Festival of Sport at Crystal Palace. Vic was always enthusiastic about his work, positive but personally unassuming. For many in the Area Associations and civil service sports clubs and grounds throughout England, Scotland and Wales, Vic (and Angela) would become the continuing, personal tie that bound all the associations together.
One of the eulogies delivered at Vic's retirement from the CSSC in 1981 is as pertinent now as it was thirty years ago: 'Vic has done this job so well (General Secretary of the CSSC) that a deep sense of loss vies in the minds of all who have known him in the CSSC with an equal sense of gratitude for his unstinted, enthusiastic, kind and constructive service. On a professional level his retirement would be marked by the conferment of Life Membership of the CSSC and the Imperial Service Order. At a club level the name 'Vic Reeves' would soon adorn Cygnet's newest coxless lV, a boat that would subsequently enjoy an unbeaten string of regatta victories.
Vic Reeves lived out a long and happy retirement in Henley-on-Thames, slipping seamlessly into the role of elder statesman, while maintaining close contact with his many friends and old colleagues at Cygnet and the CSSC. Though never afraid to be critical, he remained unswervingly loyal to both institutions, taking an active interest in each until shortly before his death.
Vic was also a keen supporter of the RNLI, becoming Chairman and later President of the Henley branch. He was also involved with the Civil Service, Post Office and BT Lifeboat Fund (the largest donor to the RNLI), being brought on to a new committee to organize Half Marathons to raise money for the RNLI. These annual events, held in Windsor Great Park, ran annually for about ten years and in honour of the sums raised, the Blythe lifeboat was named "The Windsor Runner" with invitations for all the committee and their wives to attend the commissioning. Vic notably received the RNLI Silver Award for Exceptional Services.
In later years Angela became Vic's 'eyes and ears' as he suffered from poor hearing and impaired vision. Yet he never complained, always entering into the spirit of things, not least the latest fashion in club blazers. One of the final 'milestones' in Vic's life was being elevated from an associate to a full member of Leander Club, a move that many of his friends felt was long overdue. Yet Vic Reeves was first and foremost a Cygnet man. As he remarked in a DVD filmed at the club in 2009, 'Cygnet is a family and we are all just custodians', nurturing it for future generations. Vic is survived by his wife Angela and a daughter Emma.
