Pocket from blazer belonging to Kevyn Parke Webb
Date1946 - 1947
Object number00030072
NamePocket
MediumWool, cotton thread
DimensionsOverall: 171 x 140 mm, 0.02 kg
ClassificationsClothing and personal items
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Patsy Webb
DescriptionThis blazer pocket belonged to Kevyn Parke Webb, a New South Wales representative rower. It features an emblem of the waratah flower with two pale blue crossed oars.HistoryKevyn Parke Webb was born on 21 March 1923 in Asbury, New South Wales. He joined the Haberfield Rowing Club in 1938 and won the Walker & Hall Cup for amateur scullers on a handicap basis the following year. After he was discharged from the Australian Imperial Force in 1946 he went on to win a number of national and international championships in Pairs, Doubles and Fours. He was awarded an Order of Australia for services to rowing in 1990.
When rowing resumed in Australia at the end of WWI club competition entered a new atmosphere of cooperation and national pride. Previously amateur oarsmen had been almost solely from the middle and upper classes and oarswomen had not been encouraged to form clubs at all. With people now liberated from the pre-war social structures, the 1920s and 30s saw a boom in team sports with the formation of amateur sports associations, the successful staging of national sporting events and increased coverage of both men's and women's sport in the national press.SignificanceThe blazer pocket was awarded to Kevyn Webb a member of the New South Wales Champion Fours crew for the 1946-47 season. It was the same year that he rowed with the winning Olympic Test Four on the Nepean River, Sydney.
