Cecil Pearce
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 5 May 1913 Woollahra, New South Wales, Australia | |||||||||||
| Died | 27 March 2002 (aged 87) Balmain, New South Wales, Australia | |||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||
| Sport | Rowing | |||||||||||
| Club | Balmain Rowing Club | |||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||
Cecil Arthur Pearce (5 May 1913 – 27 March 2002) was an Australian representative rower. He was a four-time Australian national champion who won the double sculls event at the 1938 British Empire Games and competed in the single sculls at the 1936 Olympics.
Cecil Pearce was born in Woollahra, Sydney, Australia, into a family with an extraordinary sporting pedigree. His great-grandfather emigrated from England in 1850 and settled in Double Bay, in Sydney's harbourside district, where he worked as a fisherman and ran a boatshed. Pearce's grandfather Henry John "Harry" Pearce, Sr. was an Australian champion in sculling. Harry Pearce had five sons and seven daughters. One of those daughters (Cecil's aunt) was a New South Wales swimming champion.
Cecil Pearce's father Sandy Pearce, was a national rugby league representative inducted into that sport's Australian Hall of Fame. Cecil's brother Sid Pearce also played rugby league for Australia. Cecil's son Gary Pearce would row in three Olympic games from 1964 to 1972.[1]
Cecil's uncle, Henry J "Harry, Jr" Pearce Jr., was an Australian sculling champion and challenged for the world championship twice (in 1911 and 1913), losing to Richard Arnst (NZL) and Ernest Barry (GBR) respectively. Harry's son Bobby Pearce (Cecil's cousin and eight years his senior) was the most accomplished rower in the family. Bobby – a sculler like Cecil – was a three-time world champion (1933, 1934 and 1938); twice Olympic champion (1928 and 1932); three time Australian national champion; and won the Diamond Sculls at Henley in 1931.[1]
Club and state rowing
Cecil Pearce's took up rowing at age eighteen and rowed from the Balmain Rowing Club. He was first selected as the New South Wales state entrant to contest the President's Cup – the interstate single sculls championship – at the 1936 Interstate Regatta.[2] He won that title in 1936 and then won the event in 1937,[3] 1938[4] and 1939.[5]