Framed Certificate

Hand coloured certificate issued to JS Verran granting him life membership at the Ethelton Amateur Swimming Club. John Verran Stanley (1883-1952) was the son of former South Australian premier, John Stanley. Having worked in the mines as a youth, he took a job as a clerk at Port Adelaide and became president of the State branch of the Federated Clerks' Union and of the Australian Government Workers' Association. He was president of the Ethelton Swimming Club for several years. The certificate is linked to the history of the Ethelton Amateur Swimming Club, one of the most successful swimming clubs based on the Port River and to a key political figure in the Port's history. This water polo teams’ shield was sponsored by British Tube Mills (BTM), which was absorbed into Tubemakers of Australia Ltd in 1946. The company purchased a 40 acre site at Kilburn, Adelaide in the late 1930s and production of tubes for aircraft guns and warships' boilers began within days of the outbreak of the Second World War. Behind Great Britain, Australia was the second nation in the world to play the game of water polo. The first known Australian match occurred at St. Kilda Baths, Melbourne on the 3rd March 1879 and was demonstrated by Professor Fred Cavill, who had only just emigrated from England. Australian men's teams have competed at every Olympic Games Water Polo Tournament since 1948, excepting 1968 and 1996.