Bert Bushnell

Bertram Harold Thomas Bushnell (3 September 1921 – 10 January 2010) was a British rower who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics and won the gold medal alongside Dickie Burnell in the double sculls, having had hopes to compete in the single sculls following a series of victories whilst competing in South America.

Having initially competed in athletics whilst at school, he took up competitive rowing in 1939, and during the Second World War he worked at John I. Thornycroft & Company's shipyard as a marine engineer and was involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk. He retired from rowing in 1951 and ran his own company renting cabin cruisers, and had three children.

Early life Bushnell was born in Wargrave, Berkshire, the younger son of John "Jack" Henry Bushnell (born 17 January 1885 in Richmond, Surrey; died March 1970), a ship builder who had operated his own boatyard at Wargrave since 31 December 1917, and was a former rower who gave up his own Olympic dreams in order to provide for his family, and Lena Simmonds Bushnell (born January 1893 in Richmond, Surrey; died December 1957), who had been a shorthand typist and an opera singer. His older brother was Leonard John Bushnell (born 19 May 1918; died 1974). The Bushnell family have had a Royal Warrant since before the First World War and this has continued into the present generation with the senior member appointed a Royal Waterman to the reigning British monarch.

John Henry Bushnell carried on the business of renting self-propelled rowing boats, dinghies, skiffs, punts, camping punts, until the early 1920s when he obtained electric canoes followed closely by motor-driven launches. Both the motor-propelled craft could be hired for self-drive or with drivers. During this time boat building of various types was carried on at the site and, as years passed, larger and more sophisticated craft were constructed for both sale and hire. In the mid-1930s the first self-drive holiday hire cruiser was built and thereafter others followed up until 1939 when the boatyard took on rapid expansions to cope with Admiralty contracts to build fast motor boats for both Naval and RAF air/sea rescue.

Career Bushnell first competed in rowing in August 1939 at the Maidenhead Regatta. In order to retain his amateur status under the rules of the Amateur Rowing Association, Bushnell was ineligible to work for his father's shipbuilding business as a boat mechanic and instead continued to work for Thornycrofts, becoming a marine engineer. During the Second World War, Bushnell tested motor torpedo boat engines and worked a 52-hour week for £3 10s.

1948 Summer Olympics Bushnell hoped to compete at the 1948 Summer Olympics in the single scull event. However, after he was a distant runner-up by five lengths in the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta on 4 July 1948, to Australian policeman Mervyn Wood, who subsequently won the Olympic singles that year, Bushnell was in the bow and Burnell the stern seat, or as Bushnell indicated later: "I was on the bridge and Dickie was in the engine room". In an attempt to avoid the favoured Danish duo of Ebbe Parsner and Aage Larsen in the semi-finals, Bushnell and Burnell deliberately came second to France in the first round. According to Bushnell: "Dickie decided we should lose the first heat so as not to meet the Danes in the semi-final. ... I wouldn't have had the nerve to do that. We could have won, but we didn't." They subsequently won both the repêchage followed by the semi-final.

On Monday, 9 August 1948, in front of a home crowd estimated to be 20,000 spectators, On the jetty they were awarded their medals while standing in their socks. As there were no ribbons for the medals due to cost-saving measures, they were given them in presentation boxes while "God Save the King" was played by a band. Despite winning an Olympic gold medal, Bushnell returned to his occupation, indicating in an interview: "There was no fuss and my life wasn't changed. I went back to work as a marine engineer on Monday. I didn't get paid to have days off and my employers considered I was a bloody nuisance."

In the 1949 European Championships Bushnell and Burnell finished 5th. In the Henley Royal Regatta of June 1949, Bushnell withdrew from the single sculls to focus on the double sculls. However, Bushnell and Burnell were defeated by the Danish team of Parsner and Larsen in the double sculls event in a record-breaking race.

Later life In September 1948 Bushnell married Margaret Campbell (born 27 October 1925; died December 1988). 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 selling his business in 1979, he moved to The Algarve, Portugal.

About 2000 Bushnell donated his gold medal to the River and Rowing Museum in Henley, 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 partner Monica Rees.

Hitchambury Homes created a housing development called Bushnell Place in honour of Bert Bushnell on Alwyn Road, Maidenhead. Bushnell and Burnell's Olympic success is featured at the Maidenhead Heritage Centre. Bushnell and Burnell and their efforts in the 1948 Summer Olympics are featured in "The Perfect Rower: 100 Years of Racing for Glory" exhibition at the River and Rowing Museum, from 31 March to 30 September 2012.

On 25 July 2012, two days before the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, BBC One screened the film Bert and Dickie (also called Going For Gold: The '48 Games), depicting Burnell and Bushnell's achievement at the 1948 Games, with Bushnell portrayed by Doctor Who actor Matt Smith and Sam Hoare portraying Burnell. The film's writer, William Ivory, met Bushnell before his death in 2010.