Swimmer who made splash dies aged 91

A champion swimmer from the Black Country who met Hitler while she competed at the 1936 Berlin Olympics has died after a long illness at the age of 91.

Gladys Lees, who took part in the historic event under her maiden name of Morcom, broke records and won trophies throughout a success-studded career in the pool.

She was 400m freestyle national champion for two years running and set an English native record at the British Empire Games that stood for 10 years.

Mrs Lees told friends she had been forced to learn to swim as a child but quickly fell in love with the sport and dedicated much of the rest of her life to it.

She took her first tentative strokes at Tipton and Dudley Baths and later taught swimming at Wolverhampton Baths for 40 years, taking pupils to competitions throughout the country including a regular annual trip to the National Championships at Blackpool.

She was appointed coach of Heath Town Swimming Club in 1949 and taught both swimming and diving to all grades of performers.

She was also the swimming teacher at Parkfields High School in Wolverhampton.

Mrs Lees was born in Dudley and became a member of Dudley Swimming Club during the 1930s. She worked as a secretary for a local building company and at the Triple X foundry.

During the Second World War she drove vans carrying slate and other materials to repair damaged houses.

She worked with a woman called Fanny Webber and became besotted with the home village of her friend when taken to Brentknoll in Somerset.

Her niece Susan Woodford, from Wednesfield in Wolverhampton, recalled: "They went to the village Church of St Michael's for a Sunday service and my aunt told her friend she liked the place so much she would live, get married and be buried there."

Mrs Lees was as good as her word because 12 years later on October 20, 1958, she married Basil Lees, a Heath Town-born engineer with Guy Motors in Park Lane, Wolverhampton at her beloved St Michael's Church where she was being laid to rest this afternoon.

She and her non-swimmer husband spent 14 years living in Brentknoll after moving there from their previous home in Billy Bonds Lane, Wombourne.

The couple met after she dashed to a catch the final half hour at a dance at the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton after finishing a coaching session at the local swimming club.

She died at the home she shared with her husband during the final years of her life in Penrhyn Bay, North Wales, on January 18. Mr Lees said: "We were inseparable and had a wonderful life together."

The couple had no children. Mrs Woodford recalled: "It was a marvellous experience to spend time with my aunt.

"She had a box full of mementoes and a cabinet packed with medals and cups from her sports career.

"The highlight of her career was competing in the Berlin Olympics. She and other members of the British team met Hitler and members of the German hierarchy, not realising what would happen just a couple of years later.

"After my uncle, swimming was the love of her life. She will always be remembered as the Midland girl who became famous after finding success as a top national swimmer.

"It was a privilege to have spent time with her."

In an interview with the Express & Star in the 1940s, Mrs Lees told how she was 15 when she competed in the Olympics and said training facilities for swimmers should be improved instead of offered in uncrowded baths.

She also extolled training as the only way to success.