Miss Annie Luker

            It was possible for professional female swimmers to come from the supporting acts to prominence. On Saturday, January 20, 1894 Miss Annie Luker went up in the world in more ways than one when she performed a high dive into the whale tank at the Royal London Aquarium. Such a feat by a female was a great novelty and, as a consequence she was rewarded with a considerable pay rise. Previously she had been employed as a professional lady swimmer with Captain Boyton’s Water Show on an income of just one-pound per week. Annie’s new role as a diver at the London Aquarium provided her with a significant pecuniary reward of £20 per week ‘in emulation of the male divers at the aquarium’.[1] The pay rise was significant in that it not only made Annie a relatively wealthy young lady but, perhaps more importantly, she provided a role model for other young ladies. A reporter from the Penny Illustrated Paper in 1897 was of the opinion that with the large number of ‘well appointed swimming baths’ in most of the major towns, combined with the ladies-only lessons now being made available, meant that it was now inexcusable that our girls should ‘remain ignorant of swimming.’[2] It was suggested that females in London should go and see Miss Luker in order to behold her wonderful skill in the water and attempt to emulate her.[3]

            Annie was described as ‘a plucky girl, whose venturesome nature led her to perform a too-dangerous feat’ that day at the Royal Aquarium in that she had ‘flung herself from a terrific height’. She had gain entry into a professional career in swimming in common with most males and females at the time by displaying her talent for speed or long-distance swimming. Annie was said to have been a regular long-distance swimmer in the River Thames which had eventually led to her appointment as ‘one of the graceful swimmers’ at Captain Boyton’s Water Show.  This new venture of high diving had the result of propelling Annie into a different social-class both in terms of her new-found fame but also in terms of her earning potential. An income of £20 per-week provided her with a comparative spending power in 2005 of £1,198 per-week which illustrates not only just how dangerous the dive would have been but also provided her with financial security. The Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times was of the opinion that ‘the performance is too perilous for a girl.’[4]

            By June, 1894 Annie Luker was declared to be a ‘Lady Diver, Champion of the World’.[5] She had quickly become part of a twelve hour continuous show at the Royal Aquarium which was declared to have ‘The Greatest Shows and the Biggest Shillings Worth’.[6] Annie had become part of the Aquariums eclectic mix of variety shows in that she shared the June, 1894 billing with: a boxing kangaroo, a talking horse, performing dogs, as well as comedians, singers, acrobats, ventriloquists, conjurors and dancers. The entertainments were declared to be ‘Unprecedented for Magnitude, Variety and Magnificence’ and ‘free’ once having paid one-shilling for entrance into the large Aquarium building.[7] The swimming feats were provided at 6 pm and 10 pm and included Annie Luker’s champion head dive, Baume’s great Monte Cristo sack feat, and Ben Fuller’s Great Dive through the roof.

            Miss Luker was still appearing in her high diving act in 1900 at the London Royal Aquarium without a break in service since her first dive six years before in January, 1894.[8] She had dived with some of the most notable male divers in the world: Mr James Finney, Mr Ben Fuller and ‘Baume’, all of which had not simply dived from a great height into a shallow tank, but had also been variously set alight, been tied up in a sack or simply dived from the roof. Such feats were performed in the name of entertainment and in order to further sensationalise what was already a most dangerous feat to perform. Such a circumstance begs the question was Annie Luker any less well thought of in performing her head-long dive or was the fact that she was a female enough to set her apart from the rest of her gender and thus allow her to join an elite group of divers. In September, 1900 the Southern Counties Amateur Swimming Association confirmed that the recent ladies swimming races would be ratified in accordance with their rules. The Perseverance Ladies SC had held a challenge race for London ladies with the outcome that Miss Smith of Berry Ladies SC was confirmed as the winner. The results had been questioned simply because the gala had contained an exhibition of ornamental swimming conducted by the professional swimmer Miss Annie Luker, Miss Lake and Baby May who all ‘showed what could be done in the ornamental way.’[9]

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[1] The Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times, Miss Annie Luker, Saturday, January 27, 1894, 57.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] The Graphic, Advertisements and Notices, Saturday, June 16, 1894.

[6] The Graphic, Advertisements and Notices, Saturday, September 15, 1894.

[7] Ibid.

[8] The Graphic, Advertisements and Notices, Saturday, January 27, 1900.

[9] The Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times, Cross-Channel Swimming, Saturday, September 15, 1900, 165.