OBITUARY : Denise St Aubyn Hubbard, sportswoman

Friday 12 Feb 2016

OBITUARY : Denise St Aubyn Hubbard, sportswoman
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Bletchley Park translator and high diver who sailed solo across the=20
Atlantic in her sixties

-  Denise St Aubyn Hubbard on the bridge of Portisham

Denise St Aubyn Hubbard, who has died aged 91, competed as a high diver=20
in the 1948 Olympics after working at Bletchley Park translating=20
Japanese during the war. She went on to be the only female skipper in=20
the Royal Navy Auxilary Service for 8 years, and in 1988, aged 64, she=20
became the oldest woman to sail single-handed across the Atlantic.

She was born Denise Audrey Newman on February 19 1924 in London, and=20
spent her early years in a village near Cairo, Egypt, where her father=20
was working for an oil company. It was here that she learned to dive,=20
taught first by her mother then, from the age of 13, by an Egyptian=20
coach. Denise was also a talented swimmer, breaking senior records in=20
Egypt when she was still a junior. In 1937, aged just 13, she broke=20
records for both the open 50=E2=80=89m and 100=E2=80=89m freestyle at the=
 open Egyptian=20
championships. Presented with a medal by King Farouk, she was hailed as=20
=E2=80=9Cthe big little champion=E2=80=9D by La Bourse Egyptienne. She wa=
s going to=20
compete in the 100=E2=80=89m freestyle in the 1940 Olympics, but the game=
s were=20
cancelled following the outbreak of war

The family spent the early war years in Abadan, Iran, but in 1942=20
returned to Britain where Denise Newman set about joining up. She=20
applied to the Air Ministry which, hearing she was fluent in French and=20
Arabic, arranged for her to be interviewed by the Foreign Office. Sent=20
on a two-and-a-half year course to learn Japanese, she completed it in=20
six months and went on to work in the Japanese cipher section at=20
Bletchley Park.....


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12150488/Denise-St-Aubyn-Hubba=
rd-sportswoman-obituary.html

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