Notable Alumni

Somerville College Boat Club, in addition to its success in the Oxford Rowing system, has produced a number of key figures in the rowing world, including a number of people who learnt to row at SCBC. Here are just a few of our incredible former members…

Juliette Perry

Having learnt to row in 2017 at Somerville, Juliette Perry went on to captain SCBC to blades in 2018. She has then gone from strength to strength, racing the Boat Race that same year.

In 2023, she was selected to row the World Cup III in the pair while rowing with Leander. She is now rowing with the GB squad, and was recently in the boat which won WeHORR.

Fiona Freckleton

Beginning her rowing journey at Somerville when she started in 1978, Fiona Freckleton was rowed for the college during two headship years, bumping St Hughs to reach headship in 1980 and then maintaining it in 1981. From there, she moved on to stroke the Blue Boat twice, in 1982 and 1983, defeating Cambridge both times.

Over the next few years, her success became international, first representing Scotland in the Commonwealth Games in 1986, and then joining the GB squad, eventually winning Britain’s first open-weight women’s sweep World Championship medal in 1991, with a bronze medal in the pair.

Patricia Reid

Another home-grown rower, Tish Reid was encouraged to try out rowing when she came to Oxford because of her height. She began rowing for Somerville and rowed in the second eight in 1983, her first year of the sport. In 1985, she joined OUWBC and rowed in Osiris, the reserve Boat Race crew.

That same summer, she began trialling with the GB squad and was selected to row in the coxed four in the 1985 World Champs. In the 1986 Commonwealth Games, she won bronze. In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she became the second woman ever to represent Britain in the Olympic single scull.

Caroline Lytton

Joining Somerville in 1999, Caroline Lytton quickly joined the boat club, not as a rower, but rather as a cox. She went on to cox the Lightweight Blue Boat in 2003, beating Cambridge. In 2004, she won gold at the National Championships in the women’s coxed four and eight with Thames RC. That same year, she also won two gold medals with England at the Home International Regatta.

Caroline is still very much involved in the rowing world, though has now moved into umpiring many races including Boat Races and Henley Royal Regatta. She is also a great support to SCBC and even came back to cox our W1 in Torpids this year for the first two days of our first blades campaign in eight years!

Leonie Barron

When she began rowing with SCBC in 1987, Leonie Barron was there more for fun than to take the sport to a serious level, having always been slightly overlooked due to her size. She rowed for the third eight in college. However, when she left, she joined Thames RC, where it became clear she was extremely talented.

In 2002, still with Thames, she and her pairs partner beat the current GB lightweight pair at the National Championships. That same year, she went on to win gold at the World Championships in the lightweight pair. That same year Luka Grubor, another SCBC alum, won gold in the coxed four. What a year for Somerville rowers!