Agnes Beckwith

Agnes Alice Beckwith (24 August 1861 – 10 July 1951) was an English swimmer.

Early life Beckwith was born on 24 August 1861 at 16b Walcot Place West, Lambeth, south London. She was the daughter of Frederick Edward Beckwith, a noted swimmer who was 'professional English champion' and swimming professor at the Lambeth Baths. By the age of four or five she was performing as a swimmer in shows organised by her father, and by 1871 she and her brother Willie's swimming skills were being shown in Paris.

Her father "Professor Beckwith" had backed Matthew Webb to be the first person to swim the English Channel. Beckwith organised a spectacle by showing Webb swimming miles in the River Thames. Webb completed ‘nearly six miles’, but the poor public interest meant that her father lost money. Her father lost his protege to another.

In August 1875 Matthew Webb became the first man recorded to have swum the English Channel. Professor Beckwith and Agnes built on the public interest by swimming five miles down the Thames.

Besides endurance racing Beckwith competed in exhibition races. In 1879 she undertook a challenge against Laura Saigeman who was employed to teaching swimming in Eastbourne. There were three races in Lambeth, Birmingham and Hastings, which Saigemann won by two races to Beckwith's one. These "naiads" attracted 1,200 spectators at their final race.

Beckwith died in South Africa on 10 July 1951.