Water Polo Club History
Dr Chris Rufford
(Staff President 2001 - Present)

I trained at The Royal London in the 70’s and 80’s and joined the water polo club in my fresher’s week having never played before. This enabled me to sail at Burnham on Crouch at weekends as water polo was played in the week unlike many other sports. There were 3 teams [all male] and we played in the united hospitals league when there were 12 medical schools in London and Barts was one of our main rivals. We also played in the ULU league and the Thameside league – the most frightening team being the metropolitan police 3rds.

We trained in Stepney baths which is now closed and always went for beers in the Kings Arms opposite before retiring to the club’s union. The annual dinner was held on the last Friday in October with usually more ‘old boys' than students, lots of beer and the usual songs. The President was Jack Taylor a Harley Street Dentist and John Benjafield a Harley Street Pathologist was a Vice President. Later John King, an orthopaedic surgeon, became president. The annual tour was always in Dorset staying in very basic pubs in Dorchester or Weymouth. Matches were played in the harbour in Bridport , off the pier in Weymouth and in outdoor pools in Exmouth and Salisbury. The highlight was becoming London university champions and we were proudly awarded gold medals. The water polo club tie was blue with a pink newt although this was originally upside down when it was designed in the 1950's by Professor Blandy an eminent urologist at The Royal London Hospital. After house jobs and SHO jobs at the London I left to work in Australia and New Zealand but in 1988 I went on the tour with the students taking my 18yr old brother who then followed me as a student at the London. I kept in contact with the club whilst my brother was a student.

Returning to work here in 1998, it was now St Bartholomews and the Royal London school of medicine,training was now at Barts Pool situated in the Gloucester House the former nursing accommodation and afterwards we would go for beers in 'The Rising Sun’ just around the corner. There was now both a women’s and a men's team but numbers were low and there was little contact with ‘old boys’ - the merger having confused their allegiance. There were only 5 medical schools in London now so the number of teams in the league had declined considerably. I was asked to be President in 2001 taking over from Ian Hutchinson who I played against when I was a student. In 2007 Chris Hall then club secretary organised the first old boys match since the merger which proved a great success. The students thought it would be a walkover as most of the old boys were from my era but Phil Shoebridge scored a goal within the first 9 seconds of the game and the old boys went on to win. One old boy dislocated his shoulder during the game and after a failed attempt at relocation went to A+E, whilst another had a disagreement with a student resulting in blood in the water causing a temporary halt to play.

​Chris also organised the first Tour for many years to France where we played other university teams. The club has always been happy and friendly and although we don’t always get the results we strongly deserve, we all have a lot of fun socially and keep very fit. The numbers playing have increased in recent years and the most recent team photo taken this term showed over forty members. The club is well represented at Tables on Wednesday evening and there are regular curry nights in brick lane. There have been some exciting tours recently with another one planned for next year.

The club celebrated its 75th Birthday in 2022 with a special dinner for all current students and alumni.