Hazel Holmes

In 1938 Hazel Holmes - on the left, with Molly Ryde and Carla Gerke - won a silver medal in the 330 Yard Medley Relay at the Commonwealth Games held in Sydney.

Hazel Winifred Holmes was a Natal swimmer, coached by Rachael Finlayson at the Cygnus Ladies Swimming Club. She also played hockey and enjoyed hiking in her spare time.

In 1936 she visited Berlin to watch the Olympics and then spent time swimming with the famous coach Walter Brickett in London.

She was the South African record holder of the 150-yard backstroke, winning the event at the 1937 South African Swimming Championships held in Johannesburg. The event was won by Molly Ryde in 1934, 1936 and 1939.

She married Walter Marchant in Pretoria in 1941, and had a daughter Verna. Walter died in 1944, after which she married Baron Kazimierz Stanislaw von Armin, the Polish Consul in Johannesburg. She became Baroness Hazel von Armin, and lived in the Bahamas and later at Abbey Road, London.