Joseph Phillips
Honorary Member
Joe’s Early Days
Joe was born in Greenock on 4th August Greenock 1934.
Taught to swim by his mother at Port Glasgow Baths (because it was heated!), Joe was a natural swimmer who very quickly rose to prominence locally, winning many youth trophies including the Greenock Corporation Schools trophy twice (1948,1949) and Renfrewshire Senior and Junior trophies in 1950.
The Phillips’ family business was formed in 1900 by Joe’s Grandfather. The original shop was set up in South Street, Greenock before moving to the more familiar Kilblaine Street location.
This entrepreneurial venture was a bicycle shop, later diversifying to charging accumulators for radios and soon after selling, renting and repairing radios, gramophones and even record sales. By the 1960’s the business diversified further into the motor trade and later built the garage in Inverkip road where he focused his attention.
Upon leaving school, Joe went into the family business completing his apprenticeship and study at Stow College and afterwards 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 playing water polo, he did compete for a victorious ‘Gourock select’ against a US Navy team from team USS Proteus in 1961.
However, when the family came along (Karen, Iain, Julie and Stewart), Joe took some time out of the pool preferring to spend his recreational time hill walking and mountain climbing.
The 70s and 80s were very challenging for many businesses and Joe rediscovered his love of participation in sport as he found that it helped him to balance the stress of running a business if he tested himself physically.
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 Glasgow and Inverclyde Marathons. However, following knee problems, 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 in 1995. 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.
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 and hold British records in 50m and 100m freestyle at long and short course.
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).
Joe swimming the River Forth in skins just for fun!
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, as an 84 year old, at not being allowed to hire diving equipment to dive with his grandchildren, while on holiday with the his family in Spain, 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.
He continued to inspire and encourage swimmers at a local, national and international level, training and competing well into his 80s. His love of travelling took him on many family holidays and in partial retirement he and Catherine visited Australia, India, China 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
