Brenda Fisher: One Of Our Own

Courtesy of Kurt Mussell, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, UK.

Filmmaker Kurt Mussell created the documentary Brenda Fisher: One of our own, the remarkable story of Brenda Fisher.

Fisher was the first female finisher at the Billy Butlin Cross Channel International Swim across the English Channel in August 1951 from France to England, placing fifth overall in 12 hours 42 minutes where she broke the previous women’s record of Florence Chadwick set in 1950 of 13 hours 20 minutes. The 23-year-old undertook the crossing in the memory of her brother Buster, an RAF pilot who had been killed in Germany during the Second World War.

She later finished third overall and was the first women in the 1954 Billy Butlin Cross Channel International Swim in 14 hours 36 minutes across the English Channel. In 1956, she won the 47 km race in the Nile River in Egypt and set a record of 18 hours 51 minutes across the 51 km Lake Ontario from Niagara in the USA to Toronto in Canada that was more than 2 hours faster than the previous record set by Marilyn Bell. She raced in the 36 km Maratona del Golfo Capri-Napoli in Italy in 1959 and taught swimming for decades after that.

Bryan Finlay of Solo Swims of Ontario commented, “[The film] presents so many wonderful well-deserved accolades for Brenda. It can’t be long before the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame finally realize they have overlooked a swimmer with so many outstanding marathon swimming achievements.”

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