[2](p6) The initial members were chiefly clerks and salesmen working in London's textiles trade around Fore Street and St Paul's Churchyard.

[2](p12) The club had boats at Simmons Boathouse (the building currently occupied by Chas Newens Marine) and a room at the Red Lion Hotel at the foot of Putney High Street.

[6](p4) In 1870 the Club won at Henley Royal Regatta for the first time, taking the Wyfold Challenge Cup from the Oscillators Club of Surbiton and the Oxford Etonians in a race that, according to the Rowing Almanack, was ‘a pretty hollow affair, the Thames crew winning as they pleased from first to last.’[6](p8) Over the next twenty years, Thames had its first great flowering, with 22 wins at Henley by 1890, including four victories in the most prestigious event, the Grand Challenge Cup for eights.

[9](pp51–52) The construction of the present Thames boathouse on a site about 300 yards above that of London Rowing Club followed and the building was completed in 1879 at a cost of over £3000.

[12] As a result, Thames was one of five clubs which had the right until 2012 to appoint representatives to the Council of the ARA and its successor British Rowing.

Many Thames members were keen on all sports and the club itself also had an influence beyond rowing: In December 1867, Thames organised a two and a half mile handicap steeplechase or paperchase similar to a cross-country race around Wimbledon Common as part of the oarsmen's winter training.

One eventual result was the foundation of the Thames Hare and Hounds in October 1868, the first cross-country club, which would itself go on to an illustrious history.

[14] Another addition to rowing training was boxing, with a ring frequently set up in the hall at the clubhouse.

Boxing finally disappeared after the First World War, when the coach Steve Fairbairn ended it because of the damage caused to oarsmen's hands.

Fairbairn was an Australian graduate of Cambridge, with boundless charisma and innovative (and highly controversial) views on training and technique.

The precise reasons are unclear but undoubtedly a clash with Julius Beresford was partly at the root: the two coaches, despite holding similar views on technique, were unable to get on.

[6](pp57–94) Although never again reaching the heights of the late 1920s, Thames continued to be successful through the thirties and then, after the Second World War, into the forties and fifties.

[6](p143) Thames women represented Great Britain at every Olympic Games between Los Angeles and Beijing.

The club won the last of these – the first win by a solely Thames women's crew at Henley Royal Regatta.

[36] Rowing by older oarsmen (and more recently oarswomen) has been a part of the club's activities throughout its history, but has increased since the 1970s in line with more national and FISA (international) Masters Competition now on offer.