Doris Storey: Blue plaque to celebrate achievements of Leeds swimming champion
She was a swimming champion who was born, lived, worked and trained in Leeds.
Doris Storey was born in 1919 lived in east Leeds, and trained at the York Road Swimming Baths.
Her first international appearance was in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin at the age of 17, when she finished sixth in the breaststroke, though she was hampered by a wrist injury prior to the competition.
She is said to have refused to stand when Hitler entered the stadium. Even though she didn’t win a medal, she was honoured with a civic reception and crowds of well-wishers on her return to Leeds.
The 1938 British Empire Games - effectively a forerunner of the Commonwealth Games - were held in Sydney in 1938. Here, she won gold medals in the breaststroke and medley events. In the same year, she won a silver medal at the European Championships.
Doris would have been in her prime during the war years, when no competitive swimming competitions were held. She qualified for the 1948 Olympics still holding the British breaststroke record, but was not selected in favour of a younger but slower swimmer.
The reason for this was that it was felt inappropriate for her to compete “given her family commitments” - she was married and had a young child.
When she was not swimming, she worked as a machinist for Burtons – as a working-class woman with limited means, her background contrasted with many of the “lady amateurs” of the time.
Following the end of her career, she ran a fish and chip shop in Osmondthorpe.
A few days before her death in 2005, her picture was displayed in the North Sydney Olympic Pool Hall of Fame.
In 2023, her legacy was further recognised through the naming of Doris Storey House, a new council housing development at Brooklands Avenue in Seacroft delivered as part of Leeds City Council’s Council Housing Growth Programme. The scheme provides high- quality, affordable homes for local residents and features artwork celebrating her achievements, ensuring her story remains rooted in the community where she lived and trained. The development reflects the determination, resilience and local pride that defined Doris’s life.
The blue plaque will be unveiled by Leeds Civic Trust on Friday, March 6 at 2pm at the front of York Road Baths where she trained.
Martin Hamilton, Leeds Civic Trust director, said: “Doris was a true swimming great. She competed and won at the highest level whilst holding down a job at Burton’s factory. Her story deserves this recognition.”
Leeds Civic Trust promotes the improvements of Leeds in the spheres of planning, architecture, heritage and city amenities and is responsible for the blue plaque scheme in the city.
Since 1987 the Trust has unveiled more than 200 plaques across the district celebrating people, events and buildings that have made a significant contribution to the city of Leeds