Joseph Phillips
Honorary Member
Joe’s Early Days
Joe was born on 4th August 1934.
Taught to swim by his mother at Port Glasgow Baths, Joe was a natural swimmer who very quickly rose to prominence locally, winning many youth trophies.
The Phillips family business was formed in 1900 by Joe’s father. The original shop was set up in South Street, Greenock.
This entrepreneurial venture was set up to charge accumulators for radios and soon developed into a business to sell, rent and repair radios. The shop latterly became a bicycle shop.
Upon leaving school, Joe went to study at Stow College and afterwards did his National Service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
Whilst on leave he met his future wife, Catherine and they married in 1961.
Throughout this time, Joe continued to enjoy and participate in sport and at this stage in his life he was involved in water polo.
However, when the family came along (Karen, Stewart and Ian), Joe took some time out. The 70s and 80s were very challenging for the business and Joe himself stated that for mental health reasons he returned to sport, initially marathon running.
Joe at 76 years old
Sporting Achievements
With the marathon boom in the 1980s, Joe got back into sports through marathon training. He competed in 3 marathons including the Inverness and Inverclyde Marathons. However, following several knee-related injuries. it quickly became clear that a return to swimming would be a good idea.
Little did anyone know (apart from Joe of course) that over the next few decades he would re-write the record books as part of his participation in Masters Swimming.
Joe was a founder-member of Inverclyde Masters Swimming Club (founded 19xx).
With steely determination and re-discovery of the incredible talent he had as a teenager, Joe committed himself 100% to becoming the very best he could be.
Joe swimming the River Forth in skins just for fun!
Over the course of the next 40 years Joe would break the Scottish Record for the 50m freestyle in each age group and retain those records until his mid 80s.
Joe represented Scotland on several occasions at the British and World Championships (research currently underway), even travelling to competitions in Prague, Budapest and Sydney Australia in 1998 (as a pool test for the 2000 Olympics).
As if his swimming achievements weren’t enough, Joe was actively involved in the community. With his highly respected sporting and local business experience, Joe was appointed to the prestigious role of Chairman of Inverclyde Leisure, a community focused non-profit charitable trust.
This literally paid dividends for the local sporting clubs in the area as Joe firstly became instrumental in attracting funds to support sporting activities such as the newly formed Lottery Fund. He then went on to work closely with each of the various clubs in the area to help them to complete their applications to successfully secure funding. Aside from his ability to attract funding for local clubs, Joe strived to ensure that high standards were instilled and maintained. This is most definitely one of the reasons that many local clubs in the area have prospered over the years.
There are many anecdotes that friends and family can recall over the years such as his scorn at not being allowed to hire diving equipment despite being highly experienced diver and champion swimmer (his time in his 60s was a fast as Johnny Weissmuller’s Olympic gold time in his 20s!). Joe was probably also the first swimmer to have prescription goggles as he got his optician to manufacture the lenses which he then glued into his own goggles.
Joe continued to inspire and encourage swimmers at a local, national and international level, training and competing well into his 80s.
Joe also loved travelling, and he and the family visited Australia, India and Cuba amongst other beautiful places over the years.
Joe passed away just 3 days before his 91st birthday on 1st August 2025.
Joe at 15 years old with the Greenock
and District Schoolboy Winner trophy
