Bert Bushnell - Later Life

Later Life

In September 1948 Bushnell married Margaret Campbell (born 27 October 1925; died December 1988). They spent the first few years of their married life on a Thames sailing barge, moored up outside the boathouse in Maidenhead. They had three daughters: Patricia Pueschel, Jacqueline Page, and Susan Bushnell, and six granddaughters.

After World War II, his father bought a second boatyard at Maidenhead. Later the businesses were split with Bert transferring to Maidenhead, and his older brother Leonard (and later his two sons, Nicholas and Paul) operating the original Wargrave boatyard until Leonard's death in 1974. After retiring from competitive rowing in 1951, Bushnell played association football for Maidenhead United and set up his own boatyard in Maidenhead, that rented cabin cruisers. Bushnell pioneered the development of recirculative "pump-out" lavatories which freed holidaymakers from elsan emptying and earned him the affectionate nickname "Recirc Bert". Bushnell was a founder member and later Chairman of the British Hire Cruiser Federation. After selling his business in 1979, he moved to The Algarve, Portugal. After the death of his wife in December 1988, Bushnell returned to live in Henley. In 1990 Bushnell had a lung removed.

About 2000 Bushnell donated his gold medal to the River and Rowing Museum in Henley, as he was concerned about it being stolen from his home and figured it was easy enough to go and visit it at the museum. In October 2006 Bushnell presented the trophy to Alan Campbell as winner of the Wingfield Sculls. Bushnell died at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Berkshire on Saturday, 9 January 2010, aged 88, survived by his three daughters and his domestic partner Monica Rees. His funeral was on 27 January 2010 at the Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin at Henley-on-Thames.