| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men’s Rowing | ||
| Competitor for Great Britain | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
| Gold | 1932 Los Angeles | Coxless pairs |
| Gold | 1932 Los Angeles | Coxless fours |
| Competitor for England | ||
| British Empire Games | ||
| Gold | 1930 Hamilton | Coxed fours |
| Gold | 1930 Hamilton | Eights |
Hugh Robert Arthur Edwards (November 17, 1906 – December 21, 1972), also known as Jumbo Edwards, attended Christ Church, Oxford and was an English rower who competed for Great Britain in the 1932 Summer Olympics.
He was born to Welsh speaking parents in Woodstock, Oxfordshire and died in Southampton.
He went up to Oxford University in 1925, and was the only Freshman selected to row in the 1926 Blue Boat. He notoriously collapsed in the race, and was later diagnosed as having a hypertrophied heart, and was told he was no longer needed to row for the university.
Edwards left Oxford in 1927 to become a school teacher. He also recommenced rowing, with London Rowing Club. While rowing with London Rowing Club, he was successful at Henley Royal Regatta in 1928, 1929, and 1930, winning the Grand Challenge Cup in 1930. At the Empire Games in Canada in 1930, London Rowing Club crews representing England, and which contained Edwards, won the eights and coxed fours. He was then invited to row in the 1930 Oxford Blue Boat.
In the 1932 Olympics he won the gold medal in the coxless pairs event with Lewis Clive, and a second gold in the Great Britain coxless four.
During the Second World War Edwards served in the RAF, once saving his own life by rowing four miles through a minefield in a dinghy after his plane crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.[1] He was invited back to be a member of the Oxford coaching team in 1949, although resigned in 1957 after a disagreement with the Australian born President, Roderick Carnegie. He was brought back in 1959 by OUBC President Ronnie Howard, but provoked a rebellion by certain members of the crew over his demands on them. Despite the resignation of certain members of the squad, Oxford beat Cambridge, and his subsequent coaching efforts made him an Oxford legend.
In 1962, he coached the Wales four containing his two sons that won silver at the Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia.
He wrote a book on rowing technique in 1963 entitled The Way of a Man with a Blade.
A coxless four belonging to Christ Church Boat Club is named Jumbo Edwards. The club's other four, is named after Jonathan Searle, another Olympic Gold medallist.