FORMER Bournemouth swimmer Olive Wadham, who represented Britain at the notorious Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, has died in a nursing home in the town. She was 95 and had been in failing health for some time.

Mrs Wadham (nee Joynes) was 15 when she joined Bournemouth Swimming Club's ladies' section at the time of its relaunch in 1924.

She went on to become the leading member of a team which dominated the Hampshire county championships in the 1930s and became national women's medley relay champions in 1936 and 1937.

Olive herself was the ASA national 100 yards freestyle champion three times and county champion 12 times.

She swam for England in the first Empire Games in Canada in 1930 and reached the Olympic semi-finals of the 100m freestyle in 1936.

In an interview for the Echo in 1992, she recalled the political undertones of an event that became known as "Hitler's Games".

On arrival in Berlin, she was given a printed "message of peace" signed, ironically, by the Fuhrer's Minister of War, Field Marshall von Blomberg.

The document extended a "hearty welcome" from the German army and the German nation.

Olive told the Echo: "There was a copy in all the competitors' lockers along with books on Berlin and the Olympic facilities and a Meissen porcelein figure from Potsdam.

"Looking back now it seems extraordinary that a Minister of War should send this. You'd think it would have been the Minister of Sport.

"But I don't think that struck me at the time. Although we saw things that were a little irregular at times, we were really only thinking swimming-wise and weren't mixed up in that sort of thing."

Olive recalled that the British swimmers travelled to Berlin by train and arrived too late to attend the opening ceremony.

She did, however, attend the closing ceremony, marching around the stadium in her uniform of blazer, dress and hat.

She also attended a lavish party hosted by Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels.

"I've never seen anything like it. There was even champagne coming out of the fountains," she recalled.

The Olympic swimming events were held in an open air pool and watched by Economic Affairs Minister Hermann Goering.

But Olive's memories of her events - which included a relay - were always hazy.

"I remember standing on the block for my heat and feeling frightened to death," she said.

"I was a bit overwhelmed but once I was in the water I was all right. I got through to the semi-finals but failed to make the final."

Olive was coached by her husband, Bill Wadham, himself a former Hampshire water polo player and diving champion, who died six years ago.

He watched the swimming from the grandstand and was also in the athletics stadium to see the legendary American runner Jesse Owens embarrass Hitler's "master race".

Olive Wadham's funeral is at Bournemouth North Cemetery at 3.15pm on October 29.