Captain Matthew Webb

Captain Matthew Webb (19 January 1848 – 24 July 1883) was the first person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids. On 25 August 1875 he swam from Dover to Calais in less than 22 hours. He was born at Dawley in Shropshire, one of 12 children of a Coalbrookdale doctor. He joined the merchant navy and served a three- year apprenticeship with Rathbone Brothers of Liverpool.
See more at Wikipedia.org...