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R.S. Bailey, Tony Abbs, G. Brind, Len Seagrave and Jessie Seagrave. Photo courtesy John C. Fry.
The son of Mary and James Seagrave, Leonard 'Len' Charles Seagrave was born May 9, 1907, in London, England. He grew up on Frobisher Road in Hornsey, the second oldest of three brothers. His father worked as a stationery printer.
Len got his start in the skating world as a speedster at the age of nineteen, finishing second in the British Half-Mile Championship on rollers in 1926. The following year, he competed in the national outdoor ice speed skating contest for the King Edward VII Cup on the frozen Lingay Fen. When the National Skating Association celebrated its Golden Jubilee with a half-mile roller race at Alexandra Palace in 1929, twenty-two-year-old Len took top honours. As a member of the Aldwych Speed Club, he also won the inter-club relay championship for the Burgoyne Shield. In the late twenties, he began figure skating on both rollers and ice. In 1931, he won a 'boot and golosh' race at the Golders Green Ice Rink.
As a representative of the Alexandra Palace Roller Skating Club, Len was British Roller Figure Champion in 1932 and twice a winner of the Devonshire Park Bowl - in 1932 and 1936. Perhaps most impressively, he was one of precious few skaters to pass the National Skating Association's tests in numerous disciplines, both on rollers and ice. He was a Gold Medallist in roller speed, a Silver Medallist in roller figures, roller dance and ice dance and Bronze Medallist in English Style figures (both on ice and rollers) and International Style Figures (ice). His versatility and talent knew no bounds.
During World War II, Len was a Flight Lieutenant with the Royal Air Force's Balloon Branch. He was demobilized as a squadron leader, and upon returning home to his wife Jessie in England, returned to the skating world as an administrator. His service to the National Skating Association spanned four decades. He served on every single one of the Association's Committees and was a long-term member of the Ice Dance Committee. He was elected Treasurer in 1951 and Vice-Chairman in 1966. He served as the Association's representative to the British Olympic Association for many years and was involved in the Central Council of Physical Recreation and the Sports Council. He was also a respected figure skating and ice dancing judge, serving at numerous British Championships. In 1951 and 1960, he judged the ice dance event at the World Championships, where Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy and Doreen Denny and Courtney Jones took top honours. At the 1951 competition in Milan, he was the only judge on the panel to place the top seven couples in the order they ultimately finished. In the sixties, he served as a Substitute Council Member with the ISU, as well as a Substitute to the Ice Dance Technical Committee and donated cups for two very different skating events - one a women's free skating competition; the other a roller speed championship.
In 1973, Len was honoured for his 'Services To Skating' with an induction as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE). Three years later, in 1976, the National Skating Association honoured him with an Honorary Life Membership for Distinguished Services. He was elected as President of the Association that same year, and presided over British figure skating during a golden era, when Robin Cousins succeeded John Curry as Olympic Gold Medallist. At the Association's Centenary Gala in 1979, he played host to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Len sadly passed away during his term as the National Skating Association's President on January 26, 1984, in Harrow, Middlesex, at the age of seventy-six, just nineteen days before Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean made history with their stunning "Bolero" as Great Britain's first Olympic Gold Medallists in ice dancing. You may not have heard his name before, but his tireless work behind the scenes in the British skating world deserves both recognition and thanks.
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