Stanley Muttlebury - Education at Eton and Cambridge: A Rower Through IT All

Education At Eton and Cambridge: A Rower Through It All

Stanley became a new boy at Eton in the Easter term of 1880 at the age of thirteen. His tutor was the Rev. S. A. Donaldson, and he settled in quickly as a successful sportsman. Winning the school pulling in 1883, and the school sculling and hurdles in 1884, he moved on to row for the Eton Eight (1884), when Eton won the Ladies' Plate at Henley (beating Radley by seven lengths). Stanley also played in the Oppidan and mixed wall games.

At Cambridge University, he was admitted to Trinity College, and he was secretary of the Pitt Club. His entry in Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses reveals some important details:

Adm. pens. at TRINITY, Oct. 8, 1885. s. of James, of 10, Orsett Terrace, London. B., 1866, in London. School, Eton. Matric. Michs. 1885. Rowing ‘blue,’ 1886-90, being in the winning crew 4 times; President, C.U.B.C., 1888-9. Steward of Henley Regatta. Adm. at the Inner Temple, Nov. 23, 1886. A member of the London Stock Exchange. Died May 3, 1933, at 3, Westbourne Crescent, London, W. (Book of Blues; Inns of Court; Who's Who; The Times, May 5, 1933.

There he excelled above all others as a fine rower. Muttle, as he was called at the varsity and later in life, soon gained the title of a Great Name in rowing circles, and was esteemed as The finest oarsman to have ever sat in a boat. In 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, and 1890, Stanley rowed in the Boat Race; an unsurpassed five times, only losing the 1890 race. Winning four Boat Races successively set him apart as a record holder in the history of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

Contemporaries writing to The Times to add to his obituary notice called attention to his extraordinary physical prowess and natural aptitude for rowing, traits accompanied by his extraordinary mildness, good manners, and natural kindness (compare Dom Placid Muttlebury above):

Muttlebury had a natural aptitude which amounted to a genius for rowing, and, as he was not only massively large and full of courage but herculean in muscular strength, it was inevitable that he should be an outstanding exponent of oarsmanship. Added to this, he came to his prime when rowing was in a transitional stage, when the old methods of the straight back and the body catch, suited to the fixed seat and the short slide, had necessarily to be superseded by methods required by the long-slide. I consider that long-slide rowing sprang suddenly to perfection in Muttlebury, that on him this new (or partially new) art was built...

With regard to the man himself ... had the most charming "good manners." It was a trait natural to him which all must have noticed... ith this, somewhat unusually, went a refusal to hurt. I have never known "Muttle" to speak unkindly of anyone; and I have never known him swagger.