Walter Bradford Woodgate

Walter Bradford Woodgate (20 September 1841 – 1 November 1920) was a British barrister and oarsman who won the Wingfield Sculls three times, and various events at Henley Royal Regatta including the Silver Goblets five times and the Diamond Challenge Sculls once. He founded Vincent's Club as an undergraduate at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1863, and in 1868 created the first coxless four by persuading Brasenose's cox to jump overboard after the start of Henley's Stewards' Challenge Cup.

Woodgate was born at Belbroughton, Worcestershire, England, the eldest son of Canon Henry Arthur Woodgate, who was a fellow of St John's College, Oxford, and elder brother of Major General Woodgate who was killed at Spion Kop. Woodgate was educated at Radley College before going up to Brasenose College, Oxford in 1858, where he rowed for Brasenose College Boat Club. At Oxford, the Reverend Woodgate's son earned pocket money by writing sermons. As a fresh-faced Brasenose freshman, he appeared as Lady Barbara in the College play, partook liberally of the wine and four kinds of punch at dinner afterwards, woke in his petticoats, and attended chapel with the rouge still on his cheeks. And two years later he founded Vincent's Club. A larger than life character, he once wagered he could walk the fifty-seven miles from Stones Chop House in London's Panton Street (near Leicester Square) to Brasenose in time for breakfast. He lingered at Oxford well into the 1860s, mainly on the river.

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