Terry is diving into retirement

Terry Jones with pupils, pictured in 2008

A dedicated Chadderton swimming teacher is finally climbing out of the pool and into retirement — at 80.

Terry Jones has been teaching people how to swim since he was 15, and his students have ranged from soldiers and water-polo champions to children with special needs.

Terry took the decision to retire after a knee replacement operation and his wife Edith’s ill-health.

Terry said: “It was a difficult decision because swimming has been everything to me, but it is the right thing to do, I can’t dedicate the time like I used to.”

Drafted as a supply teacher when training for the town team at Chadderton Baths in 1948, Terry had no idea of the long career on which he was about to embark.

From that night Terry would teach every Tuesday night for the next four years. He continued teaching in the Army in the Fifties, and two years later returned to Chadderton and also became a water-polo coach.

He went on to teach children with learning disabilities at Hill Top School for 10 years, alongside regular teaching duties for special needs children at Oldham Swimming Baths.

Terry added: “The people at the baths didn’t believe I was 80, they thought I was much younger. Swimming has been my life, I love it.”


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