Millie Hudson (11 July 1902 – 17 September 1966) was a British diver, open water swimmer, diving coach, and sports journalist.
[3] After retiring from long-distance swimming, she continued to coach, and trained British Olympic springboard diver Esme Harris.
[5] One of her coaches was four-time Olympian and gold medalist Rob Derbyshire, secretary of the Penguin Swimming Club, which was affiliated with Hammersmith Ladies SC.
[6] In a July 1927 interview, Hudson said that her employer had agreed to give her time off from work to train, but was unsure about how she would raise money for her swim.
[3] In August 1928, Millie Hudson went to Toronto to compete in "The Third Wrigley Marathon for the Championship of the World", an open-ocean swim race held as part of the Canadian National Exhibition.
[12] Although expectations were high, on 29 August 1928, only one of the European women completed the race; Hudson had to be helped out of the water close to the finish line.
[15][16] During World War II, Hudson wrote to her contacts in Canada from London, and her updates were covered periodically by Myrtle Cook in her "In the Women's Sportlight" column in The Montreal Star.
They were taught by Canadian military officers, as part of the British Women's Home Defence movement, started by Dr Edith Summerskill, MP.
[20] Hudson volunteered for the Red Cross in her spare time,[17] and reported that she had managed to swim at Weymouth after American army bulldozers cleared the beaches in 1944.