This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Lincoln College Boat Club Society (LCBCS), which was founded to support and sustain rowing here at Lincoln College.
For five decades, the Society has helped provide the boats, oars and equipment used by generations of Lincoln rowers, while maintaining a close connection between past and present members of the Club. Through the generosity, experience and continued involvement of its members, LCBCS has played an important role in ensuring that rowing remains an accessible and thriving part of life at Lincoln.
LCBC Torpid 1900: Members of Lincoln College Boat Club's Torpid crew pose for a formal group photograph in 1900.
Lincoln College Boat Club on the river in the 1940s: Multiple Lincoln College rowing crews compete on the river during a race in the 1940s.
One of Lincoln’s Lower VIIIs at Summer VIIIs, c. 1975: One of Lincoln College's lower boats sits alongside the bank before racing at Summer Eights, circa 1975.
First Women’s VIII at Torpids, 1980: Lincoln College Women's First VIII crew in an eight on the river during Torpids 1980.
LCBC Boathouse, Summer VIIIs 2009: Crowds of students, alumni and supporters gather outside the Lincoln College Boat Club boathouse during Summer Eights 2009.
W1 at Summer Eights, 2011: Lincoln College Women's First VIII crew pose beside their boat during Summer Eights 2011.
W2 throwing in their Cox at Summer VIIIs, 2011: Lincoln College Women's Second VIII celebrate by throwing their cox into the river after Summer Eights 2011.
Women's First VIII celebrating winning blades, 2023: Lincoln College Women's First VIII celebrate winning blades by jumping into the River Thames after Summer Eights 2023
To celebrate this milestone, alumni were invited to contribute to an exhibition, celebrating both the life of LCBC and the impact the Society has had over the last 50 years. We thank them for their contributions, and share some of their memories here:
Andrew Sherwood (1959): “At this time Lincoln had a strong rowing team, coached by the legendary Wilf Bossom. Under Mike [Davis’s] captaincy our first eight placed among the top three boats on the river, their best achievement hitherto. Mike went on to captain an Oxford crew that beat Cambridge by a length and a quarter in 1960 and subsequently captained the British eight in the Olympic Games at Rome later that year. There they put up a gallant fight, but did not make the final.”
Darren Marshall (1984): “I rowed at Lincoln from 1984-87. I started off in the VII Eight then III Eight then 1st Eight. 30+ years later, I (through my company, rEvolution) became proud sponsors of LCBC. The sponsorship helps students row for free at Lincoln, provides significant discounts on kit and helps fund the best coaching. I was also able to fund the new M1 boat named after my darling wife, Mary Garrett. The resurgence of rowing at Lincoln over the past 10 years in terms of numbers participating and success on the river has been a joy to watch. More importantly I receive many heartfelt thanks every year from students which mean everything to me. By a strange quirk of fate, the M1 and W1 crews in 1987 had two other rowers who were destined to play a large part in LCBC’s future – Marc Howe (1981) who is President of the Lincoln College Boat Club Society and Dana Gluckstein (Roberts, 1985) who has raised significant funds for women’s rowing.”
Danielle Costa (2010): “Our almost all-graduate boat (only Daisy, our cox, was an undergrad) was quite international: we had an Aussie, a New Zealander, two Germans, a Dutch girl, a Hungarian, two Brits and an American. We made for a diverse and fantastically interesting group, and as we saw each other so very frequently, it was a good thing we all really liked one another. With such good friends to keep me company, five weeks of boot camp turned into a fun, healthy, sociable good time. We worked very hard, but we encouraged each other and learned to move as a unit. We were even scouted and later headhunted for the Blues, which was a huge compliment to us and to Bodo, our coach.”
If you would like to read more memories from our alumni, please check out our blog .
We are very grateful to the Lincoln College Boat Club Society for its ongoing support of equipment for the Club, and particularly to Marc Howe, who has led the Society since the 26th May 2001, recently completing his 25th year of service as chair.
We would also particularly like to thank Darren Marshall, who has most generously committed to supporting the activities of LCBC in perpetuity.
To commemorate their service to LCBC, the newest boat in our fleet shall be named the ‘Marshall Howe’, and we look forward to welcoming it to the boathouse and taking it on its first row in the coming weeks.
Nigel Clifford, Darren Marshall and Marc Howe at the LCBCS Dinner 2025
