The Boat Race 1870

27th Boat Race
An artist's aerial view of the 1870 Boat Race
Date	6 April 1870 (1870-04-06)
Winner	Cambridge
Margin of victory	1 and 1/2 lengths
Winning time	22 minutes 4 seconds
Overall record (Cambridge–Oxford)	11–16
Umpire	Joseph William Chitty (Oxford)
← 1869 1871 →

The 27th Boat Race between crews from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge took place on the River Thames on the 6 April 1870. Cambridge won by one-and-a-half lengths in a time of 22 minutes 4 seconds, their first victory since the 1860 race.

The Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing competition between the University of Oxford (sometimes referred to as the "Dark Blues") and the University of Cambridge (sometimes referred to as the "Light Blues"). The race was first held in 1829, and since 1845 has taken place on the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London. Oxford went into the race as reigning champions, having defeated Cambridge by three lengths in the previous year's race and led overall with sixteen wins to Cambridge's ten.

Cambridge were coached by George Morrison who had also coached them in 1869. He had rowed in the 1859, 1860 and 1861 races and had also acted as a non-rowing president for the 1862 race, yet the previous year's decision to engage a member of the opposing university was greeted with consternation and considered by many Cantabrigians as "a disgrace to the Club". Morrison had also coached Oxford six times previously. Oxford's coach was Frank Willan, who had rowed in four victories for the Dark Blues between the 1866 and the 1869 race. He also rowed for Oxford against Harvard University in 1869. The race was umpired by Joseph William Chitty who had rowed for Oxford twice in 1849 (in the March and December races) and the 1852 race, while the starter was Edward Searle.