Tributes paid to Penny Chuter OBE a pioneer in rowing

Penny Chuter OBE, died peacefully at home in Mylor Bridge died on Saturday, November 16.

An obituary published by The British Rowing Organisation paid tribute to Penny saying she was widely recognised as having been a pioneer in rowing – as an athlete, a coach and a leader in the sport.

“The impact of her contribution has been enormous, and much of it created the foundations on which decades of subsequent GB Rowing Team success has been built,” it said.

“Her commitment and dedication to rowing and to the athletes within it was characterised by incredible hard work as well as vision, which came at the expense of a personal life, and often to the detriment of her physical and mental wellbeing.

Penny Chuter OBE who has died at the age of 82 (Image: John Shore/British Rowing Organisation)

“Yet she made many, many friends within rowing, and there are countless others who also recognise that their achievements were thanks to her.”

Penny’s life in rowing started at an early age as her family home in Surrey was on the river Thames.

She joined Laleham Skiff and Punting Club at Laleham when she was 12, and at 15 she won the first of what became 27 Punt Championship titles, and at 16 the first of 21 Skiff Championship titles.

In 1959, her skiff and punting coach, Nevill Miroy, encouraged her to try sliding seat sculling, so she could be selected for the 1960 Rome Olympic Games.

Unfortunately, of course, his expertise in the technique of sculling wasn’t matched by his knowledge of women’s international rowing, there being no women’s rowing in the Olympic programme at that time.

Penny did, however, rapidly establish herself as Britain’s leading female single sculler and raced from 1960 to 1964 at the Women’s European Rowing Championships.

In 1962 she won the silver medal, only the second women’s international rowing medal, and the first in single sculls.

After retiring from international competition, Penny spent some years as a PE teacher before being appointed as National Coach for women’s rowing and coach education in 1973 – the first paid female rowing coach in the country.

Starting from scratch, she created and led a new GB women’s national squad, which went on to compete in the first women’s events at the World Rowing Championships in 1974 and then at the Olympic Games in 1976.

In 1977 she switched to a role with the GB men’s team. Penny went on to coach the GB Men’s pair to silver at the 1978 World Rowing Championships and the Men’s eight to another silver in 1981.

In 1982 she was appointed Director of Coaching for all teams, a role she held till 1986, when she became Director of International Rowing. In 1990 she stepped back from this to work in coach education before leaving the Amateur Rowing Association in 1994. She subsequently coached for Oxford University BC and worked for the English Sports Council.

Penny Chuter OBE in her younger days sculling (Image: John Shore/British Rowing Organisation)

Penny joined the FISA (now World Rowing) Women’s Commission in 1983 and then, in 1985, the Competitive Commission where she remained until 2006.

She received an OBE for services to rowing in 1989, after leading the GB Rowing Team through the 1988 Olympic Games. In 2006 she was awarded the Amateur Rowing Association (now British Rowing) Medal of Honour and the FISA (now World Rowing) Distinguished Service to International Rowing medal.

Her funeral will take place at St Mylor Parish Church, Mylor Churchtown on Monday December 2 at 2pm. Donations can be made in lieu of flowers to the Children’s Sailing Trust via Penryn and Falmouth Funeral Directors.

After she retired, Penny moved to Mylor Bridge in Cornwall, where she greatly enjoyed getting involved with two further forms of rowing – gig racing with Flushing and Mylor Pilot Gig Club, and most recently the new discipline of coastal sculling.

In 2022, at the age of 80, she thoroughly enjoyed her last final appearance as an international athlete, coxing the Carrick RC women’s quad that she had been coaching at the World Rowing Coastal Championships in Saundersfoot, Wales.