Neil McKechnie was born in Wallasey, Wirral on the 28th of April 1939 and was a member of Wallasey Swimming Club. He has been described as 'the greatest English freestyle swimmer ever, voted BBC Sports Boy of the Year, and given the freedom of Wallasey Swimming Baths, all before he was 16 years of age. Neil McKechnie was a swimming pool prodigy. Standing six feet two inches and weighing 14 and a half stone, he looked more like a Rugby League star than a swimming sensation. It was the towering physique of the Wallasey Grammar School boy, not to mention his 10-inch span hands and size 11 feet, which helped propel him into world class company. One of the outstanding swimmers of his time, between December 1953 and November 1956, he established 30 English and British records at Guinea Gap Baths, Seacombe, making it the venue of more swimming records than any other swimming pool in the world. He was regarded as a potential world record breaker at the Melbourne Olympics, when he would be just 17. He raced through the heats of the 400m freestyle in Melbourne in 1956 and while he failed to win a medal, to have even got there was a significant achievement.
In 1958, predominantly a 400m Freestyle swimmer, he held every single English Freestyle record from 100 yards to one mile. He captained the English and British teams on numerous occasions and was named BBC 'Sports Boy of the Year' in 1955 and 1956, the year he won the Triple Crown at the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) National Championships, retaining the 110 and 220 yards Free Style titles the following year. He was famously filmed by the BBC clipping 0.8 seconds off the English 110 yards backstroke record at Guinea Gap Baths in 1956 before being whisked off to the studios in Manchester to be interviewed on Sportsnight. "It tells you something about the man that after doing the interview, he came back to Guinea Gap to honour a long-standing engagement," said Norman Haslehurst, of Wallasey SC and Neptune (formerly Mersey Docks and Harbour Board) SC. He was a splendid person and a great friend of both clubs." Neil was a member of the Great Britain Team that swam at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and two years later gained a bronze medal in the 4 x 110 Medley Relay at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff alongside Christopher Walkden, Graham Sykes and Graham Symonds. He also finished fourth in the 880 yards freestyle and sixth in the 110 yards freestyle at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
One of the reasons why he was so fast was that Guinea Gap was a salt water pool, drawing its water direct from the River Mersey. The Baths were designed by W. H. Travers, Borough Engineer for Wallasey Urban District Council, and opened in 1908 providing two salt water pools measuring 65 x 30 feet and 75 x 27 feet. Over 200 national, European and world swimming records were made at the site. Neil swam there alongside former Olympians Graham Sykes and Judy Grinham. In 1956, Wallasey Corporation conferred on him The Freedom of the Baths' at a specially arranged civic reception. Neil led Wallasey Swimming Club to victory in the Freestyle Team Championship of England and retired at the tender age of 20 to be a student apprentice with an engineering firm as he felt he was unable to devote sufficient time to training.
Neil McKechnie died on the 8th of 2006 after a short illness aged 67.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2026/08/merseyside-for-sport-derek-temple.html
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