Kenny Dwan

Who is Kenny Dwan?

Kenneth Victor Dwan is a former British rower who competed in the Olympic Games in 1968 and 1972 and won the Wingfield Sculls six times.

Dwan was born in Rotherhithe, London to a family of lightermen in the Port of London. He joined Poplar Blackwall and District Rowing Club at the age of 12 initially as a cox but soon as an oarsman. When he was 15 he was apprenticed as lighterman to his grandfather Williams and this allowed him to enter the novice sculls in the National Dock Labour Board regatta at Putney. He won the race which included contestants of that year’s Doggett's Coat and Badge Race. While he was sculling he continued working as a lighterman and worked for Humphrey & Grey starting as a boy in the tug Sir John. After two year with Humphrey & Grey he obtained his lighterman’s licence and went on the dock labour pool to experience a variety of firms. During 1967 the decasualisation scheme following Devlin’s report was implemented and all dock workers had to be allocated to an employer. Dwan was allocated to F.T. Everard at Greenhithe, of whom he said “The management were very good to me in allowing me time to train. I could not have wished for better employers”.