UCBC names boat Margaret Chamberlain
UCBC’s new Women’s first boat
Following the success of last year鈥檚 event, on 26 May 182t福利 Boat Club (UCBC) hosted their second Martlet Regatta, a family-friendly afternoon of rowing and racing. The event began with a naming ceremony, during which the new Women鈥檚 first boat was officially unveiled. The boat has been named after Univ鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Boat Club founder Margaret Chamberlain (1979, Jurisprudence).
Margaret Chamberlain
Margaret Chamberlain was part of the first intake of female students at Univ in 1979. She joined the college in order to read Jurisprudence and soon found herself joining the Men鈥檚 Boat Club.
鈥淏efore term began the Men鈥檚 Boat Club had sent out an invitation to all freshers (including the women) to join the Boat Club, which I ignored on the basis that I had managed to avoid sporting activity so far and had no intention of changing my approach. Fate took a hand when I sat next to the Captain of Boats, Philip Lafeber, at the Freshmen鈥檚 Dinner.聽聽He was probably struggling to find common ground and also in need of a cox. He observed that I was quite small in stature and asked if I had a loud voice, to which the only suitable answer seemed to be 鈥測es鈥�. He suggested that I would make a good cox; I said that I had no idea what a cox did. This conversation resulted in a trip to the Boat House and an outing in a tub pair.聽To this day I have absolutely no idea why I agreed to meet Philip at the river, but I am so glad that I did.
I became the first woman member of the College Boat Club and in my first term coxed the Univ men鈥檚 third novice eight, there was no fourth novice eight. My coxing abilities matched the rowing skills in front of me. I couldn鈥檛 drive, I hadn鈥檛 realised that when one end of the boat moves in one direction, the other end will move in the opposite direction and so my principal qualities were those identified by Philip at the dinner, I was not very big and I had a loud voice, very important in pre-voice box days.鈥�
The Womens’ Boat Club’s first outing
After becoming the first woman member of the College Boat Club, Margaret founded the College鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Boat Club in 1980 and was captain from1980 to1981.
鈥淎聽few other women had asked to learn to row, something of a distraction for the Men鈥檚 Captain. Their training needed to be organised, managing the Men鈥檚 Boat Club was a fairly full time job and I was the only woman with any relevant knowledge at all, including how to get to the boat house.
Thus it was that I was asked by Philip Lafeber to take on the task of running what is now the Univ. Women鈥檚 Boat Club. Norman remained dubious about women in the boat house, but once he saw we meant business, he rapidly became our firmest supporter.
It would be fair to say that the men had no great expectations for the Women鈥檚 Boat Club and that no particular arrangements were made to accommodate us. We rowed in the men鈥檚 boats (adjusted by Norman) with men鈥檚 blades and it was some time before our campaign to have our own blades was successful, and some time before Norman let us (or more precisely me) loose in a shell, the precious 鈥淛ohn Cross鈥�.
At the beginning of the Summer Term 1980 I had called a meeting in my room in Goodhart of those women who had said they were interested in rowing. I am pretty sure I made it clear that my interest was in doing it properly and happily there was a general feeling that we were not there to row prettily up and down the river on sunny days, we expected to be taken seriously and we wanted to win something.鈥�
You can read Margaret鈥檚 full personal account of her time at Univ
Louisa Boult, UCBC President has provided a short event report of the Martlet Regatta and boat naming ceremony.
UCBC President Louisa Boult christens the Women’s first boat
To round off the week, we welcomed Univ alumni, staff, and students down to the boat house for our second ever Martlet Regatta! This was kicked off by the naming of the new Women鈥檚 first boat 鈥� a Hudson now known as the Margaret Chamberlain (after the pioneer of Women鈥檚 rowing at Univ!).
The Martlet Regatta 2025
Several crews made it onto the water 鈥� some learning to row for the first time, and some putting their experience to the test with some head-to-head racing.
After refuelling at the barbeque, guests took on 100 m sprint erg races and had tours of the boat house to reminisce on old times. A great time was had by all, and we hope to invite even more people back next year!
Published: 25 June 2025