Solo Swims of Ontario Inc.Solo Swims of Ontario Inc.
On the 14th August 1956, 28-year-old Brenda Fisher became the third person to swim Lake Ontario. Her
time of 18 hours 51 minutes broke Marilyn Bell's record time by 2 hours 4 minutes. She started at 10:45 pm from
Niagara-on-the-Lake and finished at the eastern tip of Cherry Beach, Toronto.
Brenda was the daughter of a trawler Skipper from Grimsby, Lincolnshire in England. An attempt in the previous year, 1955, to swim Lake Ontario was unsuccessful.
An accomplished marathon swimmer, Brenda set a women's record for the English Channel in 1951 when she crossed from France to England in 12 hours 42 minutes - 73 minutes faster than the record time set earlier that year by the Welsh swimmer Jenny James. The photograph shows her at the completion of that swim and is taken from Sam Rockett's book "It's cold in the Channel". She completed a second crossing of the Channel in 1954 in 14 hours 36 minutes. Brenda was married to English soccer player Patick Johnston who played for Grimsby Town.
Brenda was champion of the Morecambe Bay (10 mile cross-bay sea swim) in 1948, a title which her sister, Jessie, had won in the previous year. Her
brother, Buster, was also a swimmer who had swum the Humber River; he was killed in the Second World War.
Some family information provided by Graham Smith, BLDSA.
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Created: 8th May 2001
Last Updated: 28th August 2005