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HONOUR FOR BIKINI CHANNEL SWIMMER

Ethel Sunny Lowry, the first British woman to swim the English Channel, received the MBE in the New Year's honours list.

The modern bikini introduced in 1946

A second cousin of the painter L S Lowry she joined the Victoria Ladies swimming club in the 1920s and made her first Channel bid in 1932. 

The following year she made a second unsuccessful attempt but eventually succeeded in 1933 at the age of 21. She completed the crossing from Cap Griz Nez near Calais to St Margaret's Bay in 15 hours 41 minutes. 

When she made her swim across the Channel in 1933 she wore a red cotton two-piece swimsuit, possibly the first bikini, long before the French introduced the garment in 1946.

In March 2000 she was part of a campaign to restore the swimming baths in Manchester at which she trained and in the same year became the first president of the Channel Swimmers' Association.

The modern bikini was invented by engineer Louis Reard in Paris and introduced on July 5 1946.