June Markham
June Markham
Fast Facts
Born: 4th Nov 1938, Beamish, County Durham
Lived: Chester-le-Street & London
First skated: Age 9
Awards: N.S.A. Gold
Titles: British Ice Dancing Silver medalist, 1956, European Ice Dancing Silver medalist, 1956,
World Ice Dancing Silver Medalist, 1956, British, European and World Champion, 1957, British, European and World Champion, 1958
Skating partner: Courtney Jones (Dorset)
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When 9-year old June Markham from Clarence Terrace in Chester-le-Street first tentatively stepped foot on the ice at Durham ice rink in 1947, little did she know that in just ten short years, she would be stepping onto a podium in Colorado Springs as a world champion ice dancer.
Inspired by the great Norwegian olympic champion Sonja Henie, a young June aspired to be ‘just like her’ after seeing the skating film star performing on the big screen ‘at the pictures’ in Durham. A pupil at Chester-le-Street Grammar School, June devotedly trained for an hour every day at the Durham rink as a teenager to make her dream a reality. It would go on to pay off - in dividends.
A natural talent on the ice, when June was just 11 she won three skating trophies in one day. She performed the same feat the following year. While still at school, she entered her first National competition, gaining fourth place. By the time she had completed her studies, she had collected eight trophies.
Realising her huge potential, her parents Harry and Esse sent the 16 year old June to Manchester for tuition under more experienced skating coaches, and later London, where she became a member of Purley’s Queen’s Ice Skating Club. It was here that she would truly find her feet after her coach Gladys Hogg paired her with Courtney Jones, an unknown 22 year old up-and-coming skater from Bournemouth.
June would later say that they ‘clicked’ straight away, and they did. In the 1955 British Amateur Ice Dance Championships the new couple earned second place. It was a performance that secured her a place in the British team who would go on to compete at the 1956 European Ice Dance Championships in Paris. This achievement made her the first ice-skater from the North-East to represent her country.
In Paris, the British team of six went on to sweep the board taking gold silver and bronze. June and Courtney narrowly missed out on gold, despite being awarded 20 more points than they had in the British Championships just a few months earlier.
Winning gold at the 1957 European Championships in Vienna, the couple went on to travel to the World Ice Dancing Championships in Colorado Springs, competing on a smaller ice pad which caused some European skaters some difficulty, who were more used to Olympic sized ice pads. Perhaps June early muscle-memory of skating on the 180ft x 80ft ice at Durham, with it’s tight corners kicked in, as the 18 year old from Chester-le-Street and her 23 year old partner danced their way to gold, becoming World Champions for the first time.
After winning their first world title, Courtney and June wowed members and the public alike with an exhibition at New York’s Rockefeller Center, but June hadn’t forgotten her roots either, and came home to perform two more exhibition shows with Jones at both Durham and Whitley Bay in the second half of 1957.
In November the couple defended their British title at Nottingham - cheered on by her 73 year old grandmother Alice Moor who had made the trip down from Chester-le-Street with a coach-load of supporters from her home town.
In 1958, the couple skated to another gold, this time behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ competing in the European Championships in Bratislava.
Next was the Palais de Glace in Paris, where they would defend their World title in 1958. Speaking ahead of that competition, June said:
“It will be harder than winning it, for it is the only title that the Americans have never won and they will be certain to field strong opposition. Courtney and I will work hard and do our best.”
Win it they did, and in style, with an outstanding performance earning them 6.0’s from the ice-side judges.
But just two months later, at the peak of their success, June decided to quit competitive skating, and instead turn professional. She was still only 19 by this point. To mark the end of her competitive career she briefly returned home to Chester-le=Street to hold a screening of some of her best performances for chidlhood friends and family who had keenly followed her fairytale success story, but had rarely seen her in action on the ice competing against the world’s best.
After a year of instructing at the Queen’s Club rink in London, June was offered the opportunity to teach for a year as ‘Chief Skating Instructress’ in Winnipeg’s Winter Club, Canada.
Newly engaged to a business executive, John Perrott, who she met at the rink, she set sail from Liverpool in October 1959. Joining her a few months later the couple married in Manitoba before returning to the UK.
Continuing to skate and teach, the couple settled down in Kingston-on-Thames where they raised four children.
