Francis Prout (7 July 1921 Greenwich, Greater London, England – 23 February 2011 Woodbridge, Suffolk, England) was a British canoe sprinter who competed in the early 1950s. He was eliminated in the heats of the K-2 1000 m event at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.
Francis moved to Canvey Island as an infant with his parents, Margueritte, a native of Switzerland, and Geoffrey Prout, a writer and boat builder. During World War II Prout served as airframe fitter with the RAF in southwest Asia and then went to Rhodesia where he became a flying instructor. After the War, he married Erica Hawks and had two children, Jane and Stephen. Together with his brother Roland Prout, in the family firm of G. Prout & Sons (founded in 1935 by their father, Geoffrey Prout), he developed the pioneering Shearwater III racing catamaran in 1956 and several later designs. He set a Guinness record for having the most title wins in a year.
References
- Frank Prout's obituary
- "Francis Prout, Eulogy".
- "Prout Catamarans – a History". Katamarans. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
- McCave, Fred. "The Prout Story". CanveyIsland.org. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
- "Francis Prout, Eulogy".
External links
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Frank Prout". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012.
  | This article about a United Kingdom canoeist is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |
- 1921 births
- 2011 deaths
- English male canoeists
- Canoeists at the 1952 Summer Olympics
- Olympic canoeists for Great Britain
- People from Greenwich
- Sportspeople from the Royal Borough of Greenwich
- British male canoeists
- British yacht designers
- Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
- British expatriates in Rhodesia
- 20th-century English sportsmen
- British canoeist stubs