11 Facts About Bill Burgess

Thomas William Burgess was the second person to successfully complete a swim of the English Channel after Matthew Webb, following sixteen attempts.

Bill Burgess was British but spent most of his life in France, and won a bronze medal with the French water polo team at the 1900 Olympics.

Bill Burgess was born at 7 Lyndhurst Place, Rotherham, to Alfred Bill Burgess, a blacksmith from Youlgreave, Derbyshire, and Camilla Anna Peat, a cook from Harthill, South Yorkshire.

Bill Burgess's father worked for the Earl of Shrewsbury and accepted the Earl's offer to run a branch of the business, Shrewsbury and Challinor Rubber Company, in London.

Bill Burgess accepted and moved to France, where he spent the rest of his life.

On 8 August 1893 Bill Burgess married Anne Rosalie Mioux, a French woman, in Neuilly-Sur-Seine in Paris, and lived with her, running a motor business in Levallois-Perret.

Bill Burgess competed in swimming and water polo at the 1900 Olympics held in Paris and won a bronze medal playing for the French team despite his British nationality, which was allowed by the rules at that time.

On 6 September 1911, on his 16th attempt, Bill Burgess became the second person to swim across the English Channel, and the first one to use goggles.

Around the same time Bill Burgess bought a summer home at Cap Gris Nez near Calais, as a summer base to train channel swimmers from 1922 to 1934, while his main residence was at Clichy, Paris.

In 1941 Bill Burgess was taken prisoner by the Nazis and held in a prison camp Frontstalag 142 in Besancon, France.

Some authors suggest that Bill Burgess is the inspiration for the Portuguese word "burgesso", a descriptor for people which is used to mean short, heavy and ungainly, or poorly educated, ignorant and rude.