History of the Cawnpore Cup Each year since 1988, the Committee of Arklow Sailing Club award a Perpetual Challenge Cup to a club member for his retention and safe keeping to the following year. The Cup is presented, not to the fastest boat or the best skipper or indeed, perhaps not even to a sailing member. This Cup can be awarded to any member of the Club who has contributed to the Club over and above what might be called "expected contribution". Generally, the Cup is won by a member who has devoted very significant time and/or energy to the Club. But how did the Cawnpore Cup come to be an award presented each year by the Arklow Sailing Club? The Cup itself is some 8 inches high with a lip diameter of 3 1/2 inches. The Cup is thought to be made of silver although there is no franking mark thereon to confirm this. The Cup was almost certainly made in Cawnpore and probably of material comprising melted down rupee coins. The main inscription, (excluding ASC winners names), on the Cup is - [Cawnpore Gymkhana Races 1925/1926 - Second Meeting - Jajmau Cup - 9th January 1926 - Wee Lassie]-. The Cup was won outright in January 1926 by Ursula Horsman (nee Dixon) on her horse "Wee Lassie". She was half Irish and half Scottish. Ursula was born on 24th May 1901 and had been married to Albert Horsman in Bombay in October 1921 when she was 20 years old. Thus when she won the Cawnpore Cup, she was not yet 25 years of age. By any standards Ursula must have been an exceptional woman, but more of her later. We must all thank Henry Horsman for presenting the Cawnpore Cup to Arklow Sailing Club. It is Henry's wish that the cup should be named as it is rather than the "Horsman Cup". Henry was our Commodore from 1973 to 1980 and President from 1981 to 1985. The Cup was presented to the Club by Henry in 1988 when the Cup was awarded to Billy Brown, the first Club member to be so honoured. Henry was born in Cawnpore in 1927. He was Ursula's second child, her first being Maureen who was born in 1923. Henry's father was a boxwallah. More at -- http://www.arklowsc.ie/Club_Details/cawnpore_cup.htm --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India