ABSTRACT
In 1934, Ran Laurie delivered one of the strongest performances of his career, stroking the Leander Club to victory in the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley-on-Thames. The 1934 crew set a Boat Race record and Laurie, by this time an admirable stroke, occupied this position in the 1935 and 1936 races. The advent of the Second World War, however, thwarted the pair’s hopes of competing in the Olympics that would have been due for 1940 and 1944, and brought about a lengthy pause to their respective rowing careers. Despite the incumbent responsibilities of a young family, Laurie qualified as a doctor in 1954. He then worked as a general practitioner in Blackbird Leys, Oxford, for the next 30 years of his life. Laurie is remembered not only as half of the finest British rowing pair of the generation but as a skilled and firmly principled physician, who was self-effacing to a fault.
