Major figure in Scottish rowing
Born: January 3, 1932;
Died: April 25, 2016
GORDON John Day, who has died at 84, was a major figure in the sport of rowing in Scotland, first as an international performer - he represented Scotland at the 1958 Empire Games - and then as a national umpire, international team manager and administrator.
In later years, he was a committee member of the Allan Glen's Old Boys Club, while in his professional life, he was also a talented and innovative engineer, eventually working with many whisky distilleries to develop the pneumatic cask-filling nozzle that reduced the waste of whisky when filling barrels.
He first took up rowing while a pupil at Allan Glen's School in Glasgow and told The Herald in 2012 how it happened. "I was playing rugby and I broke my nose when a scrum collapsed," he explains. "A pal of mine found out what had happened and suggested I try something different and took me on a tram down to Glasgow Green, where I started rowing. I was tickled pink by it but I wasn't allowed to go out in a boat myself until I learned to swim."
He joined Clyde Amateur Rowing Club at Glasgow Green when he was 14 and went on to be selected for the RAF rowing squad during his national service, racing at Henley Royal Regatta and other international events across Europe. "I don't know how I managed to get away with it; for six months I was out of uniform and into a boat," he told The Herald. "My most memorable race was in Hamburg; the RAF had destroyed the city just a few years earlier but they seemed to have forgotten that when they welcomed us."
He eventually became president of Clyde during a period when its Clyde Rowing Weekend was voted the best regatta in Britain. He also became Scottish rowing's international team manager and was voted into the position of vice-president of the Scottish Amateur Rowing Association. In this role he had responsibility for delivering the international requirements of the rowing course at Strathclyde Park so it could successfully host the rowing events of the 1986 Commonwealth Games, during which event he hosted the Duke of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal.
He also was the Scottish representative on the Olympic selection committee that picked a certain Steve Redgrave for the first time in 1984.
In later sporting life, he teamed up with partner Ian Stanners to enjoy outstanding success at successive World Masters Regatta, racing as Clyde Masters and picking up world gold medals on several continents, until Ian Stanners' death in 2003. Having competed on the veterans circuit with Stanners for 15 years, his death was hard to take.
"One Sunday morning, we had a tremendous session then, on the Monday, he phoned to say he wasn't feeling too well," Day recalls. "He thought he had rheumatism or some such so we decided not to bother weight training that week but I never saw him again. Less than a fortnight later he was dead."
After this, the veteran squad at neighbouring Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club took Day under their wing and he went on to compete successfully with them, winning his last Scottish title at the age of 80. He also became a member of Cawder House Curling Club and was president and secretary of the Kenmure Probus Club in Bishopbriggs, where he lived for most of his adult life.
In 2013, he was presented with his MBE in 2013 for voluntary services to rowing and his charitable services through the Allan Glen's Old Boys Club.
He is survived by his wife Eileen, children Suzanne, Jacqueline and Simon, their spouses Roddy, Gill and Claire, and his grandchildren.
MIKE HAGGERTY
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here