Daniel Liffen who has died aged 81 was the first and possibly only person to swim out to Scroby Sands and back from Great Yarmouth's north beach.

Eastern Daily Press: A press cutting relating to Daniel Liffen's heroic swim.A press cutting relating to Daniel Liffen's heroic swim. (Image: Archant)

He performed the feat aged just seventeen with little fanfare and only a handful of people to watch him, supported by a small boat.

Since his successful effort on July 21, 1951 no-one is thought to have matched his achievement, although others have tried.

Mr Liffen's daughter Sandra Shelley, who lives in Upton, said his exploits were the stuff of family legend.

According to a newspaper report the teenager managed to cross and back in 2 hours 8 minutes and 50 seconds

The report states that he was accompanied by a motor boat, containing his father, also Daniel Liffen, and Mr WA Ellett the time-keeper.

It adds that 'other Yarmouth swimmers have made the Scroby to Yarmouth swim, but no one has swum to Scroby, let alone make the double trip.'

In a letter written by Mr Liffen to Mercury columnist Peggotty he stated that he started off opposite Barnard Bridge, landing back on the beach 'not very many yards from the place where I started.'

Although all the newspaper reports state he was a 16-year-old when he made this double swim, he must in fact have been 17 at the time as he was born on April 21, 1934.

Scroby Sands sandbank is around four miles offshore and the currents are treacherous.

Yarmouth born Mr Liffen lived in Arundel Road and attended the town grammar school where he took his A levels.

He joined the Royal Navy who sponsored his Cambridge University degree in electrical engineering.

He went on to spend some years teaching at the Polaris School in Faslane, now the home of the Trident nuclear submarine.

Having met Connie, a nurse, at a Valentine's Ball in Weymouth the couple went on to marry in 1960 and had three children Steven, Sandra and Mark.

In the early 1970s he left the Navy and the couple returned to his home town to run a guest house in North Denes Road.

When tourism fell away in the 1980s his wife returned to work as a nurse and he stayed at home as a 'house husband' looking after Mark, in what was then a pioneering move.

In recent years, he developed cerebral atrophy, a progressive condition which saw him lose most of his functions including the ability to communicate - a condition he bore with good-natured acceptance.

He leaves his wife Connie, his three children, five grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.

The funeral service is on Monday, April 18 at Gorleston Crematorium at 12.40pm.

Flowers from close friends and family only and donations to the RNLI.