Medal of Honour and Merit Citations

Medal of Honour – Rosemary Napp

[newsimage=0]’The Medal of Honour which was introduced in 1987 is British Rowing’s highest award. It is awarded for Outstanding Service to Rowing and is not presented lightly. Some of the former recipients are; Sir Steve Redgrave, John Garton, Mike Sweeney, Bill Mitchell, Eric Halliday and Jurgen Grobler.

‘Rosemary Napp joined the rowing family when she was persuaded to leave the British Canoe Union in 1989 to set up our membership scheme. The records show in 1990 a total of  11,000 members. Today our membership is 31,000. How this was done is totally down to Rosemary with the help of the staff, and many of you the volunteers, who have  compiled five Whole Sport Plans over the past twenty years. 

‘While Rosemary has  been interested in the high performance side of the sport, for her it has always been about development. Totally focussed on programmes that can enable the able-bodied the disabled, young and the old, to experience the sheer pleasure of our sport have been her mission. 

‘I would say in the words of ‘007’ there have been times when Rosemary was ‘shaken, but not stirred’ by successive outside agencies but she has more than delivered through her work with our volunteers on the development of our sport.’

Medal of Honour  – David Biddulph

[newsimage=1]’Over the years it would have been impossible to have walked a river bank without meeting David – complete with megaphone, flags and all the other equipment needed as an umpire for he covered more regattas than most other umpires in the country.  As with most umpires there seem to be periods when the hated word disqualification came weekly, resulting in his favourite words “Oh Lord!”

‘Although I knew him as an umpire I first worked alongside David at the 1986 World Rowing Championships in Nottingham where I really began to appreciate his knowledge, expertise, common-sense and how to be calm in a crisis or challenge – a team player second to none.

‘David, when not waving flags on river, can be seen waving flags at the proms and busy on his website which was one of the first information webs in rowing. He has been a dedicated Secretary to the Multi-Lane Umpires Commission Rules of Racing Committee.  Of course in 2012 we were extremely proud, as I am sure he was, for him to be one of the British Umpires selected to Umpire at the Olympic Games.’

Medal of Merit  –  Kevin Dentith

[newsimage=2]’The Medal of Merit was introduced to recognise those who have given exceptional service to both their Club and their Region. 

‘Kevin Dentith has been a member of Exeter Rowing Club for thirty-four years.  He is an active officer as Captain and Chairman, a successful Coach and qualified umpire. 

‘On behalf of the Region he has spent 15 years as representative on the National Coaching Committee, and has been the most efficient of Secretaries for the National Coaching Committee. He will attend a very technical meeting on Saturday and have the minutes produced for Monday. 

‘Kevin was President of WEARA and played an important role in forging early partnerships with British Rowing.’

D. M. Ellis CBE
17/11/2012