‘Nobody expected her to do it’: Gertrude Ederle nearly drowned as a child – so she became the first woman to swim the English Channel

Gertrude Ederle was asked to provide her passport after the gruelling 14-and-a-half hour swim (Picture: Bettmann Archive)

100 years ago, a 20-year-old woman swam across the English Channel faster than anyone ever before.

What made Gertrude Ederle’s achievement all the more remarkable wasn’t just the speed or the fact it had only previously been completed by men, but that a childhood accident had almost robbed her of the opportunity – and her life.

Born in 1905 in Manhattan to German immigrant parents, Gertrude(also affectionately known as Trudy) was one of seven children, and the family often spent their summers in the Highlands on the New Read Entire Article