Manchester High School for Girls is sad to learn of the death of Sunny Lowry, a former pupil and the first British woman to swim the English Channel. She died in Warrington Hospital on Thursday 21st February, 2007, aged 97.

Sunny Lowry

Sunny attended MHSG in the 1920s and was awarded the MBE in 2005 for services to swimming in the North West.

Born in Longsight, she conquered the 21mile stretch of water on her third attempt on 29th August 1933. She retained strong links with the Channel Swimming Association and was President from 2000 to 2007.

Sunny played an active role in the restoration campaign for Manchester’s Victoria Baths, where she spent hours as a girl training for her epic swim. She remained a keen supporter and the baths is now hoping to stage an exhibition in her memory.

Well-known in the swimming world, she also founded Warrington Dolphins long distance swimming club, the Eugene Mermaids synchro team which toured all over England and was a swimming teacher in Warrington for more than 20 years.

She presented Ian Thorpe with a medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and helped actor David Walliams prepare for his 2006 channel swim in aid of Sport Relief.

With her late husband Bill, also a swimming teacher, she wrote a text book of their own series of  water-based exercises for Polio sufferers in the 1950s. Sunny also survived her only child, Veronica.

Her niece, Anne Signol, said: “Sunny was a truly inspirational woman. She was always positive and the word ‘No’ was never an option to her.

“She touched the lives of so many people, from the thousands of children she taught to swim, to the many friends of Victoria Baths.

“Swimming was her true love and despite losing her sight, she was still dipping into the water even in her nineties,” she said.

MHSG Head Mistress Mrs Christine Lee-Jones said:“Sunny Lowry was a true role model for generations of our students and proof positive that most things can be achieved with self-belief and determination.

"Our deepest sympathies are extended to her surviving family and friends. wonderful role model for the current generation of Manchester High School girls and shows that there is nothing you cannot achieve once you set your mind to it.”