Human Torpedo

A Glynde schoolboy narrowly missed becoming champion of all Sussex in the men’s 220 yards free-style swimming race at the Brighton Baths last week. He is Allan David Reid, of Caburnside, Glynde, who is known to his friends as the ‘human torpedo’. Alan, who was 17 in June and attends Bec School, Lewes, came a close third in the championship race. The race was won by R C Dunn in 2 mins 45 secs and Alan swam level with him until his youth told against him. F R Thompson, who came second, beat him by a fraction in the last lap. Alan’s time was 3 mins 2 secs.

Alan is the son of Chief Inspector Reid, of the Metropolitan Police, and his greatest ambition is to follow his father into the Force. But first he wants to be a pilot in the Royal Air Force and play his part in helping the country. He is an enthusiastic member of the Air Training Corps. Since the age of 12 he has been a keen swimmer and has an array of trophies to his name. He told an Express-Herald representative that he owed his swimming ability to the splendid teaching of his sister, Miss Betty E M Reid, and it was a great disappointment both to him and to her that she was unable to see the race last week. Miss Reid has also won several cups, chiefly for life-saving, and in 1936 was runner-up in the Kent County Championship.